# Cow elk meat



## pheasantphool (Nov 30, 2007)

How many pounds of usable meat do you get from a cow elk?


----------



## truemule (Sep 12, 2007)

All of it. :mrgreen:


----------



## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

Between 250 and 300 depending on who butchers it for you......


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

A good formula to remember on any big game animal is the this.

1/3 of the total body wt. = head, hide, bone.
1/3 of the total body wt. = guts, fat, scraps.
1/3 of the total body wt. = usable meat.

So, most mature cows will weigh in around 400-600 pounds. divide by 3 and that's approximately how much meat you'll be getting. Plot runners total would be accurate for a big bull, but not a cow. You'll get 125-200 lbs of meat off a cow depending on her size.


----------



## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

Not to argue but i picked a cow up from the butcher that we shot last month and we got 284 lbs of meat from her...........she was a big cow though lol


----------



## Treehugnhuntr (Sep 7, 2007)

Hey, In Mexico they consume 140 lbs. from a 200 lb. mule deer, I guess it just depends on what you constitute as _food_. _/O :shock: It certainly would make me wonder what they processed.


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

plottrunner said:


> Not to argue but i picked a cow up from the butcher that we shot last month and we got 284 lbs of meat from her...........she was a big cow though lol


That had to be the biggest cow ever! :shock:


----------



## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

My bad 234 lbs i just re-read the invoice........lol


----------



## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

On the 234#, did they add beef fat to any burger you might have had made up? Just curious. That is a LOT of meat off a cow. If you had like 100 pounds of burger, usually mixed with 15-20% fat, that can add quite a few pounds. Not bring critical - just trying to be realistic with full information. That is one huge cow though. You'll enjoy that elk for quite a while! Awesome!


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

plottrunner said:


> My bad 234 lbs i just re-read the invoice........lol


That's still a *HUGE* cow!


----------



## Texscala (Sep 8, 2007)

I am going to second the beef being added back in. I took a cow a few years ago and noticed that we took home around 230 pounds and thought that was a bit much, I found out that the butcher had added a lot of beef into the burger (I did not want it but oh well).


----------



## archerben (Sep 14, 2007)

I would venture to guess there has been some meat added somewhere to that enormous cow. For example, most butchers offer adding beef fat to the hamburger and some even offer mixing it 50/50 with beef burger. That right there would add a lot of weight. In addition to that, did you have any sausage made? Most sausage is made with a 50% pork, 50% red meat mix on the light end, and many with a 75% pork, 25% red meat mix. Again, much more weight added in there.

Also, was that invoice weight the weight of the meat you took home, or the weight of the quarters that you took into the butcher prior to processing?


----------



## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

Weight was amount of meat took home........I had 40lbs of sausage made so I guess its possible that they added pork fat to it.......But even if they went 50/50 that would only be 20lbs.....Im not sure on the burger.......Ill have to check......


----------



## Bo0YaA (Sep 29, 2008)

I guess the whole 1/3 concept explains alot. Like why I only seem to be bringing home 60-70lbs of meat of a deer I bust my arse getting lol. Almost dont seem worth it at times..hahahaahah yeh right.


----------

