Meat share calculator
What does a half beef cost me per pound I take home?
Showing for United States
Hanging weight of your share
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- Cost of your share
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- Take-home weight
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- Cost per take-home pound or kilogram
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- Freezer space, low estimate (cubic feet, at 40 lb per cubic foot)
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- Freezer space, high estimate (cubic feet, at 35 lb per cubic foot)
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Hanging weight is the carcass weight the processor bills on, after slaughter and before chilling and cutting.
Your processor's cut sheet decides the real figure.
Hanging weight
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- Price per hanging pound or kilogram
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- Price of the share
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Hanging weight is the carcass weight the processor bills on, after slaughter and before chilling and cutting.
The rate is rounded up to the cent, so you never earn less than you asked for.
Total bill
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- Balance due
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- Refund due
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If the deposit is more than the total, the difference is shown as a refund due, never as a negative balance.
Enter your numbers to see the result.
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Use this calculator in an AI chat
You can ask Claude, ChatGPT or another AI app to work this out for you, and this calculator opens right inside the chat. You connect TallyTill to your AI app once. It is free, and there is no account and no sign-in.
AI apps call add-ons like this connectors, apps or MCP servers. They all mean the same thing: a way for the AI to use a tool someone else made.
1. Copy this address
2. Add it to your AI app
Claude (claude.ai and the Claude desktop app)
- Open Customize, then Connectors.
- Press + Add, then Add custom connector.
- Name it TallyTill calculators, paste the address and press Continue.
- Under Authentication choose No sign in, then press Add.
- In a new chat, press + at the bottom left, choose Connectors and switch TallyTill calculators on.
On Claude's free plan you can add one custom connector.
ChatGPT
- In Settings, turn on Developer mode. OpenAI moves this switch from time to time; it is usually with the settings for apps and connectors.
- Add a new connector (ChatGPT may call it an app), paste the address and choose No authentication.
- In a new chat, choose TallyTill from the tools menu, or type @ and pick it.
Not every ChatGPT plan lets you add your own connector. If you cannot find the option, your plan may not include it.
Using another AI app? Look in its settings for MCP, add the address as a remote server, and choose no sign-in.
3. Ask your question
Say "use TallyTill", so the AI uses the calculator instead of doing the sum itself. For example:
"Use TallyTill: What does a half beef cost me per pound I take home?"
What you will see
- The calculator opens in the chat with the numbers you gave already filled in. Change any number and the answer updates.
- If a number is missing, the box is highlighted, or the AI asks you for it in plain words.
- The answer links back to this page, so you can check the working.
- The first time, your AI app asks if it may use TallyTill. Choose Allow.
The calculators take numbers only. They never ask for your name, your email or a password.
How this is worked out
Hanging weight is the carcass weight the processor bills on, after slaughter and before chilling and cutting. Take-home weight is the packaged meat, as a percentage of hanging weight. For a buyer, the share's hanging weight is the whole carcass's hanging weight times the share (whole 1, half 0.5, quarter 0.25). The cost is that weight times the price per hanging pound plus the processing charge per hanging pound, plus any flat fees for the share, rounded to the cent. Flat fees are for the share and are not scaled by its size. The take-home weight is the share's hanging weight times the yield percentage ÷ 100, and the cost per take-home pound is the rounded cost ÷ the take-home weight, rounded to the cent. For a seller, the hanging weight is the live weight times the dressing percentage ÷ 100, and the rate is the amount you want for the animal ÷ the hanging weight, rounded up to the cent so you never earn less than you asked for; the price of a share is that rate times the share's hanging weight, rounded to the cent. For the weigh-in, the total is the actual hanging weight times the price plus processing per hanging pound, plus any flat fees, rounded to the cent; the balance due is the total less the deposit, and if the deposit is more than the total, the difference is a refund due, never a negative balance. Every price is per pound or per kilogram, whichever you choose.
A worked example
Example numbers only; use your own. Say the whole carcass hangs at 750 lb, you buy a half, the price is 4.50 per hanging lb plus 1.00 per hanging lb for processing, and 62 percent of the hanging weight comes home. Your share hangs at 750 × 0.5 = 375 lb, so it costs 375 × 5.50 = 2,062.50. You take home 375 × 0.62 = 232.5 lb, so each take-home lb costs 2,062.50 ÷ 232.5 = 8.87. As a seller, an animal of 1,200 lb live at a 62 percent dressing hangs at 744 lb, and 2,400 ÷ 744 = 3.2258, rounded up to 3.23 per hanging lb. At the weigh-in, a share of 312 lb at 4.25 per lb totals 1,326.00, and with a 500.00 deposit the balance due is 826.00.
Nothing you type here is saved.