How much meat do you get from a pig, lamb or cow?

Updated 2 November 2026

AHDB’s yield figures show a 111.5 kg pig giving about 70 kg of meat, a 600 kg steer about 240 kg and a 40 kg lamb about 14 kg of bone-in cuts. That’s roughly 63% of liveweight for pork, which keeps its skin, 40% for beef and 35% for lamb. Breed, fat, gut fill and how you have it cut all move the figure.

Three weights to know

• Liveweight is the animal’s weight before slaughter.
• Deadweight, or carcase weight, is what’s left after slaughter and dressing. For cattle and sheep the head, feet, skin and guts are removed. A pig carcase normally keeps its skin, with the bristles scraped off, and only the hooves, guts and a few organs removed (carcase definitions).
• Take-home meat is what comes back from the butcher once bone, fat trim and drip loss have gone.

The killing out percentage (KO%) links the first two. It’s the carcase weight as a percentage of liveweight, so a 49 kg lamb with a 22 kg carcase has killed out at 44.9%.

Two things to check on your kill sheet:

• Hot or cold weight. A carcase loses weight as it chills. AHDB says a hot pig carcase weighs 1.5 to 2% more than a cooled one, and abattoirs that report cattle and pig prices take 2% off the hot weight. Ask which one your sheet shows.
• Prices. To turn a liveweight price into a deadweight one, divide by the KO%. At 52%, 200p/kg liveweight is 385p/kg deadweight (SAC).

Killing out percentages

The suckler-bred figure is worked out from the liveweights and deadweights in SAC’s 2025/26 budgets for finished steers, heifers and bulls. AHDB’s own example 600 kg steer killed out at 53%.

How much of the carcase you take home

The pork figure comes from AHDB’s pork yield guide, which counts crackling, kidney and fat as edible meat. Its example pig’s head weighed 4.4 kg and its liver 1.8 kg, and neither is counted in the carcase or meat figures, so add them if you have them back.

The lamb range is wide because sources cut differently. AHDB’s lamb yield sheet works out at about 74% of the carcase as prepared bone-in cuts, while Meat Promotion Wales puts a typical carcase cut mainly into bone-in joints at 80 to 88%.

For beef, AHDB’s carcase table runs from 64.7% saleable meat for a poorly shaped, fat carcase to 76.5% for a well-muscled, lean one. In AHDB’s breakdown of a 303 kg carcase hung for two weeks, bone was 16% of the carcase, fat 6% and drip and cutting loss 2.6%. Trimmings for mince made up 11%, and how much more goes into mince is mostly your choice on the cutting list.

Worked examples

So half of AHDB’s example pig is about 35 kg of meat, and a quarter share of the steer about 60 kg.

For your own animals, multiply by the killing out percentages above:

• A 100 kg baconer at the UK average of 75 to 76% gives a carcase of about 75 kg.
• A 60 kg porker gives roughly 43 to 45 kg at 72 to 75%, as lighter pigs kill out lower.
• A 45 kg lamb at 45 to 50% gives 20 to 22.5 kg.
• A 600 kg suckler-bred bullock at 54 to 57% gives 324 to 342 kg.

For comparison, Defra’s figures for September 2026 put the average UK carcase at 367.8 kg for steers, 333.3 kg for heifers, 91.2 kg for clean pigs, 20.5 kg for clean sheep such as lambs, and 27.3 kg for ewes and rams.

What changes the yield

• Breed. AHDB says well-muscled meat breeds of pig kill out better, and breed affects lambs too. In SAC’s budgets, dairy-bred beef cattle kill out at 50 to 52%, against 54 to 57% for suckler-bred cattle.
• Gut fill. Food in the gut counts towards liveweight but not the carcase. AHDB found pigs weighed after feeding were about 5 kg heavier than after 24 hours without food, and lambs weighed on an empty stomach kill out higher.
• Fat. Fatter lambs kill out higher but lose more in trimming. AHDB puts saleable meat at 94.9% of the carcase for fat class 1 and 87.2% for fat class 5. In beef it falls from 74.1% at fat class 2 to 68.0% at 4H.
• Shape. Well-muscled carcases give more. A beef carcase graded -U2 yields 76.5% saleable meat, against 70.8% for P2.
• Weight. Heavier pigs kill out better: AHDB found about one percentage point more for every extra 10 kg between 70 and 120 kg.
• Age and sex. Spring lambs kill out higher than hoggets, and milk-fed lambs higher than weaned ones. Ewe lambs generally beat entire ram lambs, and entire boars kill out about one point lower than castrates and 1.5 points lower than gilts.
• Fleece and dirt. Heavy or wet fleeces lower the killing out, and mud on the belly wool can weigh over 2 kg (Meat Promotion Wales).
• Bone in or out. Boning out joints reduces the overall saleable yield.
• Hanging. Beef that’s dry aged for weeks loses weight as it dries. Our guide on how long to hang meat has the figures.

Goats and deer

There’s little UK data on goats. In a small University of Maryland trial of nine meat-breed bucks, the goats averaged 32.7 kg liveweight and killed out at 43%, and their carcases were about 61% lean meat and 32% bone.

Deer weights are recorded as hill weight or larder weight. Larder weight means the deer has been gralloched and its head, legs and pluck removed, but it’s still in its skin (Best Practice Guides). We haven’t found a reliable published figure for how much meat a wild deer gives. Farmed red deer stags kill out at about 54%. For skinning and butchery options, see our guide to deer and wild game processing.

How much freezer space you need

We haven’t found a reliable published rule for how much freezer space a given weight of meat takes, so plan by weight. From the AHDB examples, half a pig is about 35 kg of meat, a whole lamb about 14 kg and a quarter share of a steer about 60 kg.

Ask your butcher how they’ll pack it, in bags, vacuum packs or boxes, and check your freezer space before collection day.

To see what each animal costs to kill and cut, read how much private kill costs. A clear cutting list decides how much ends up as joints, chops or mince, and the finder shows abattoirs near you that take your animals.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ between England and Wales and change over time, so check with your abattoir, vet or local council if you're unsure.