Weight of meat on a sheep

The Weight of Meat on a Sheep calculator approximates the weight of meat on a sheep based on its weight, either live or dressed.

INSTRUCTIONS: Choose your preferred weight units and enter the following:

• (Weight)  This is the weight of the sheep. It can be either the live or dressed weight.
• (Type)  This is the  weight type of the sheep. Options are live weight or dressed weight (also known as hanging weight or carcass).

Weight of Meat (W): The calculator computes the approximate weight (W) of meat on the sheep in pounds. However, this can be automatically converted to other weight units (e.g. kilograms) via the pull-down window.

The Math / Science

The amount of meat yielded from a sheep can be generally calculated based on some approximations. The dressed or hanging weight can be assumed to be around 50-52% of the live weight. About 70-72% of the carcass weight will end up as usable meat. This value can vary due to many factors such as boneless or bone-in cuts (although for sheep most cuts are bone-in), the amount of fat left on cuts and not trimmed,  the ratio of fat to lean in any  ground meat,  the fat and muscle composition of the specific animal, and more.

Obviously it is impossible to calculate exactly how much meat a sheep will yield before hand, and other people may assume a higher or lower percentage of the animal will be meat  but this equation will give you a decent ballpark idea of what you can expect.

Meat Product Calculators:

• Weight of meat on a hog
• Weight of meat on a steer
• Weight of meat on a sheep
• Weight of meat on a goat
• Weight of meat on a deer (field dressed)
• Weight of meat on a deer (live weight)
• How many people will and amount of meat feed?

Read our Blog about the deer meat calculators: How much meat is on my deer

See Also:

• http://meatsuite.com/page/weights-and-pricing
• http://animalscience.psu.edu/extension/meat/pdf/The%20Butcher%20Stole%20My%20Meat.pdf