Hog weight

[bigtusker]

Just a tidbit of info I thought I'd throw out there. I'll let one of you math whiz folks figure out the percentages.

Harvested a hog the other day that weighed 220 pounds live.
He dressed out at 105.
Had it boned out and took the meat to Corralitos. 43 pounds.
He did have a large hole in him that probably ruined about 5 or 6 pounds of meat so it is safe to say we got around 50 pounds of boned out meat. The guy who butchered it is a professional, over 25 years in the business so there was no waste.
Anyone with similiar weights and measures stories?

 

[MikenSoCo]

Chopper, I was never able to weigh a hog live but... Over the years, I've come to believe you can double the "meat hook" weight and get pretty close to the live weight. I was surprised to see you actually had more weight in the hide,head,gutpile than in meat and bones! I can't give you any formula, just my educated guess. I do think they look bigger on the hoof than they really are though

 

[Speckmisser]

Good info, Chopper!

I keep meaning to get the whole breakdown first hand, but it always seems like something comes up. Last one I killed had to be disassembled in the field, so I didn't get any live weight or accurate field dressed weight on him.

Guess I need to get my crap together and actually kill one next time I make it to your place.

 

[Rancho Loco]

The last two pigs I killed I estimated at about 85-100 lbs.

On the hook at Freedom meat locker they weighed in 50, and 55 lbs.

I had one ham smoked, and the rest made into link sausage with 10% (weight) domestic pork fat added.

Final amount was 70 lbs. of sausage and 7 lbs. of ham.

I've always figured dressing reduces the weight by half, and then processing another half...

 

[Freedivr2]

If I remember right, I believe the general rule for boned out weight to the live weight is about 3:1, so you were pretty close there. I also think that general rule is for deer and elk. And, because of the bone mass, skull size and weight of the skin of a boar (much more than a deer, for sure), that 3:1 ratio might be a little greater (the live weight to boned out meat weight).

I've learned to butcher my own deer and hogs, and the only thing I weigh in the butchering process is the chili grind (in 1 lb. packages). I just figure I do the best with what I have, and what I end up with is what it is, the total weight doesn't matter much to me, so I don't bother too much about that, I end up with what I end up with........

P.S. I highly recommend doing your own butchering........besides custom packaging exactly the right sized meals for your family, and cutting steaks and chops to the thickness YOU like, you NEVER ever have to wonder if a processor skimmed any chops or steaks from your critter. Plus, there's some kind of satisfaction there in doing it yourself.

 

[RIFLEMAN]

My butcher and I were having this very same conversation just the other day. My butcher's advice is to double the hanging weight and then add 10% more to get the estimated live weight...100 pounds on the hook would be a 210 pound hog and between 50-60 pounds of meat. Bear and hogs lose more weight to waste than any other game.

He does over 100 hogs a year and says that he rarely gets a hog over 100 pounds on the hook. The average appears to be between 70 and 80 pounds of hanging weight.

I have found that most people grossly overestimate the weight of their hogs when measuring by looks alone.

 

[bigtusker]

I call it live weight, but it is actually dead weight. I just weigh the dead critter before we gut it. I was fortunate that we shot this one only 5 minutes from the house. If its much further, I get the guts out right away. And my weights are from one of those Cabelas big buck scales so it may be off a couple pounds but not much.

 

[SacFireJT]

Two hogs from Choppers place in November:


I will list the hanging weight (gutted, skin on) and pounds of meat, including sausage/hams, bone-in.

Pig one: hanging, 85 lbs, 49 lbs of meat.

Pig two: hanging 60 lbs, 29 lbs of meat.

My final meat numbers seem high, but I think those were the hanging weights, If I remember right?

The meat is some of the best pork I have ever had!

 

[BDB]

My thoughts are that the weight percentages change with the size of the animal. Obviously I know that a 200 pound pig has more actual weight of guts, head, hide than a 100 pounder but I think the percent probably change too.

I don't have a whole lot of real numbers but I do know that the last big boar I took at choppers was 98 pounds on the hook. Head, hide, guts and legs jointed at the elbow and the bottom removed. I have always thought the hanging (condition stated above) is about half of the live weight, maybe even a little less. We all guestimated him at 200+ live when we drug his butt back to the skinning shed.

 

[Mike C]

We used to by 4H pigs at the Ventura County Fair and the rule of thumb was a 250 lbs pig would weigh about half or 125 lbs when sent to the butcher with about 60 % of that weight being turned into usable product for consumption. So it sounds to me that most of everyone’s figures are pretty close with slight variations.

 

[bayedsolid]

Depends on boar or sow too. The head and hide off a big boar will double the weight of the head and hide off a sow...or close to it.

 

[RIFLEMAN]

That's an excellent point, bayed; one can't forget to factor in the denser bone and heavier cartilagenous shield in the older boars.

 

[bigtusker]

What Bayedsolid and rifleman said is right on. That hog we whacked had a pretty good plate on him. I'll try to get a pic posted later, probably not till next Monday.