# meat yield



## amyrob (Nov 20, 2007)

What amount if meat can be expected from a boer? What is optimal butcher age? Considering maybe getting into boers.


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## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

I am fortunate enough to work with a company which slaughters approximately 70 wethers a week and supplies the specialist halal butchers and restaurants. We kill mainly wethers but some does, milk teeth only, aiming for a carcase weight of 12 - 14kg with a fat score of 2. 

The general rule of thumb we tell people is to budget for 42 - 45% yield (this is using hot standard carcase weight - after the head is removed, the carcase skinned and gutted and on its way to the chiller). We deal with people that have crossbreeds as well as full bloods and it is generally a good rule. However, I have personally supplied fullblood boer wethers that yielded at 47%, and I got penalised for it because they went too heavy.


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

we just had one butchered


he weighed 92 when we loaded him in the truck and hanging weight was 47.. so about 50% 

he was 10 months


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## amyrob (Nov 20, 2007)

Have you ever ground it all and know the actual meat yield(not hanging weight). We butchered 2 BIG nubian wethers and after all trimming etc, got a total of 55 # for the both of them. We did trim themvery well w/ regard to fascia and muscle sheaths and sinew/tedon. Just looking to see how dofferent it is. Next time I can do a pre weight and a hanging weight to get a comparison. I have a wether born last spring that is pretty good sized now. I'll have to put a weight tape on to get an estimate.

Karen, thanks for the specifics. What major city do you live near that does halal butchering? Have you read The Year of the Goat:40000 miles in search of the perfect cheese?

Is 12-14 kg roughly 30-35 # then?


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

the hanging weight is what it weighs.

we are getting 47 pounds of meat .. it has bone in it, so idk bout that..

but one wether we butcher awhile back was 80 pounds before and we got 36


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## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

amyrob, sorry I forgot to convert. 12 - 14 kg carcase is 26.5 - 30.8 lbs carcase. You are looking at a roughly 30kg liveweight animal (with empty gut) to get that carcase weight - or 66 lbs.

I am in Australia, I live in a little town called Yerong Creek and it is a small abbatoir at Cootamundra about an hour and a half away that does the halal slaughter.

Go to this site:

http://maps.google.com.au/

and click on the bit that says 'get directions'

Type 'yerong creek nsw' in box a, and 'cootamundra nsw' in box b. That is where we take our wethers for halal slaughter.

Then type 'cootamundra nsw' in box a and 'canberra' in box b - that is where the goat meat goes to for the restaurants and specialty butchers.

And then type in 'Yerong creek nsw' in box a, and 'wodonga vic' in box b, that is where we take our cull goats to be slaughtered (old bucks and wethers) and these are exported to the US and mostly used in stews/casseroles etc. We send it there cut into a six way primal or bone-in cubes.


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