Hunters can learn more about their deer and how much venison it will yield by first obtaining an accurate field-dressed weight. **University of Wisconsin research The Equation for Venison Yield A buck's condition plays a large role in how much boneless venison it will yield. It's the muscle and fat that make them different.Īlthough it would be convenient to say a deer's meat yield is equal to 50 percent of its field-dressed weight, it wouldn't be totally accurate. A deer has long legs with little meat on them, whereas steers have the same bone structure (but with more meat). For hogs, almost everything is used - bacon, hocks, etc. Hamburger and stew meat, the amount of meat seems minuscule when compared to the meat yield of domestic animals.Īll animals are built a little different. Although a neck-shot mature buck can yield a big amount of steaks, chops, Many aspects combine to determine venison yields. Misconceptionsīy misjudging field-dressed weights of whitetails, hunters often have unrealistic expectations of how much venison they should receive from their butcher. For example, a yearling buck with a field-dressed weight of 125 pounds will have an estimated live weight of 160 pounds. Granted, this estimate won't pass muster with biologists, but it should be good enough for deer-camp comparisons. This number came about after comparing it with several chest-girth charts. Most biologists put no stock in any weight estimates based on chest-girth measurements.Ī hunter can obtain a ball-park estimate of his deer's live weight by multiplying its field-dressed weight by 1.28. Unfortunately, such charts are often inaccurate because - among other things - they don't account for fluctuations in the body sizes of bucks before and after the rut. Northern does weigh 105 to 120 pounds field dressed.įor decades, some hunters have relied on chest-girth charts to estimate live weights of deer. Yearling bucks, which range from small spikes to basket-racked 10-pointers, typically weigh 105 to 125 pounds. Southern fawns weigh less - sometimes less than 30 pounds field dressed. The typical Northern fawn, which includes "button bucks," weighs about 55 to 75 pounds field dressed, while a healthy doe fawn weighs 45 to 65 pounds field dressed. You likely won't see big differences in meat yields until you can compare a mature buck with the rest of the meat-pole crowd. Author: Dan Schmidt, Reprinted with permission from: Deer & Deer Hunting, September 2000ĭoes and bucks from similar age classes yield similar amounts of venison.
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