How many steaks from a cow?

Ay caramba – how long is a piece of string? When will Medupi be completed? How tall is a Prasa train? These are the things that keep me up at night. It all really depends on what types of steaks and what other kinds of cuts you may want. The actual live weight to retail cuts yield varies, and is dependent on various factors such as breed, fat to muscle ratio, cutting order, and age.

On average a beef steer weighs about 525kg, but obviously not the entire cow makes it to the table. It will only weigh approximately 60% of its live weight once it makes it to the rail. The 40% loss during the slaughter and dressing procedure is a result of the animal being bled - and the hide, head, hooves and organs being removed. The remaining 60% is often referred to as the “Hanging Weight” or the weight “On the Rail”.

But that’s not the end of it, as weight loss doesn’t stop there. Once on the rail, it will lose moisture -   accounting for additional weight loss. Then fat and bone is removed during the cutting, accounting for another 20% loss. So, a 525kg steer (on the hoof) will average around 250kg of retail beef (steaks, roasts, ground beef, stew beef, etc.).

Still – to get to what is considered the amount of quality primary cuts, we have to trim it down even more. Your choice of cut may depend on your budget – some people can only afford non-prime steaks, such as the round steak. Then, some steak snobs don’t include the porterhouse or T-bone steak, since they are combinations of the top loin and tenderloin.

So as a general rule of thumb half will be ground beef, a quarter goes to the various roasts, and another quarter is for your primary steaks.  Here’s a breakdown of the math for you:

• 1 x average SA cow = 525 kg
• lose 40% to trimming >    315kg
• lose 20% to moisture loss >    250kg
• 50% to ground beef >    125kg
• 50% for chuck, shank, brisket etc. >    60kg

Which means we are left with +150 primary steak cuts, split as follows.

• Sirloin Steak    7kg    20 cuts
• T-bone Steak    5kg    14 cuts
• Rib Steak    4kg    12 cuts
• Short Ribs    4kg    12 cuts
• Rump        4kg    11 cuts
• Tenderloin Steak    3kg    10 cuts
• Porterhouse Steak    9kg    27 cuts
• Kidney and Hanging Tender    2kg    6 cuts
• Flank Steak    2kg    5 cuts
• Inside skirt    2kg    4 cuts
• Outside Skirt    1kg    3 cuts
• Strip Steak    7kg    20 cuts

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