Meat Yield Explained: What is Really Means

When I hear the word “yield,” I don’t think percentages.

I think disparity.

There are two tri-tips on a cow.

Two seven-bone rib roasts.

Two briskets.

Two tenderloins.

Certain cuts are naturally limited, no matter how large the animal is.

Yield, from my perspective, isn’t just about how much meat an animal produces. It’s about how unevenly that meat is distributed.

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The Other Side of the Animal

Most people don’t think about this part.

A cow does not turn into steaks.

It turns into steaks, roasts, ground beef, trim, fat, bone, organs, secondary muscles, and cuts that most customers rarely ask for.

A significant portion of what the animal produces carries little perceived value in the broader marketplace.

The market doesn’t say it out loud, but it communicates it clearly:

“We don’t want that.”

That’s not criticism. It’s just behavior.

But behavior shapes economics.

You cannot get X without producing Y.

You cannot produce more filet without producing more round.

You cannot produce more ribeye without producing more chuck.

If demand concentrates heavily on a handful of popular cuts, pricing pressure has to land somewhere. It lands on the things people consistently choose to buy.

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From Live Weight to Retail Case

A finished steer might weigh around 1,400 to 1,500 pounds live weight. From there, it becomes a hanging carcass. From there, it’s broken down into primal cuts. From there, it becomes retail-ready portions.

At each step, weight is lost.

Bone is removed.

Fat is trimmed.

Moisture is lost.

Certain parts are ground.

Some parts are rendered.

What starts as a large animal becomes a relatively small amount of retail-ready product in specific, recognizable forms.

And those forms are not evenly represented.

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The Car With No Tires

Here’s a way to think about it.

Imagine someone selling a car. You tell them you only want to buy the tires.

That’s fine. You’re allowed to want the tires.

But from the seller’s perspective, if they sell you the tires, they now have a car without tires. Very few people want to buy that.

So if they’re going to expose themselves to that risk, the tires have to be priced in a way that accounts for the downside.

This isn’t about guilt. It’s about mechanics.

When a marketplace consistently demands only certain parts of the animal, the economic balance shifts. The more concentrated the demand, the more those cuts carry the burden of the whole.