How Much Meat Can One Pig Produce?

Reader Contribution by Shelby Devore
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by AdobeStock/Art by Pixel

How much meat do you get from a pig? How much meat can one pig produce? Although there’s a little bit of variance as to volume, the cuts of meat from a pig don’t change. Learn how much meat to expect from one butchered hog.

The ideal market hog size is 270 pounds.  This means that your pig will ideally weigh around 270 pounds when you butcher it.  (If it’s a male, make sure that you castrated him at a young age.)  Research has shown that after 270 pounds, pigs tend to put on more fat than muscle tissue, so unless you want a ton of lard, feed them out to 270 pounds and don’t spend any more money feeding them. Up to 270 pounds, they put on both muscle and tissue.

So, your pig weighs 270 pounds and you take it to the slaughterhouse.  You can expect to get about 57% of your pig back in edible cuts.  When you do the math, that’s about 154 pounds of meat.

Some people choose to take their pigs earlier at around 250 pounds, because the meat may be slightly more tender than it would at 270 pounds.  In that case, you could expect to get about 144 pounds of meat back from your pig.

Keep in mind that all pigs are slightly different and are going to vary slightly as to the pounds of meat that you’ll get back, but these numbers should give you a good idea.

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