The way animals are typically sold is by the pound hot hanging weight at slaughter after gutting and just before entry into the cooler. The slaughterhouse has a scale on the rail just before the cooler door to take this measurement. Then sales are hot hanging weight + processing + delivery. That's the traditional way.
But there are lots of people doing it different ways.
Some people sell live weight - this is typical for auctions or if you're selling to the slaughterhouse.
Some people sell by the cuts - this is how we sell retail and wholesale for parts of the pig as opposed to carcasses and half carcasses.
Some people bundle the processing into the price. This might be done in any combination of the various processing costs: slaughter, cut & wrap, sausage making, smoking, etc.
Some people bundle the delivery into the price.
Some people do it other ways.
With scald & scrape which is what we get the yield from a live weight (LW) to hanging weight (HW) is about 72% which is primarily the loss of the gut:
HW = 72% LW
If the pigs are skinned the yield is a little lower.
Yield from hanging weight to commercial cuts (CC) depends on how you have the cutting done (bones, fat trim) so:
CC = 67% HW
How you have the pig cut and what you choose to use will make a big difference there.
-Walter
