Half a hog gives you one side of each pork primal: a Boston butt and a picnic shoulder, half the loin (chops, roasts and back ribs), one belly (bacon and spareribs) and one ham, plus trim for ground pork and sausage. From a typical 250-pound market hog that works out to roughly 55 to 62 pounds of take-home pork per half. You decide the mix on your processor's cut sheet.
What are the pork primal cuts?
University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension describes a pork carcass as first divided into primal cuts: the Boston butt and picnic shoulder at the front, the loin along the back, the side or belly underneath, and the ham at the rear. Each primal is then cut into retail cuts, and ground pork and sausage come from trimmings across the whole carcass.
| Primal | Approx. % of cut-out weight | Retail cuts you can ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Boston butt (upper shoulder) | 10% | Blade chops, arm steaks, shoulder roasts, pulled pork, sausage |
| Picnic shoulder (lower shoulder) | 11% | Picnic roast, smoked picnic, ground pork |
| Loin | 25% | Rib, loin, butterfly and sirloin chops or roasts, tenderloin, back ribs |
| Side / belly | 21% | Bacon, fresh pork belly, spareribs |
| Ham (leg) | 25% | Whole or half hams, ham steaks and center slices, fresh or cured |
Percentages from UW-Madison Extension, Table 3. Hocks, jowl and trim make up the rest and usually go to smoked hocks, jowl bacon, ground pork or sausage.
How much meat do you get from half a hog?
Work from live weight to the freezer in three steps. Market hogs dress at about 70 to 75 percent of live weight, the carcass loses a few percent while it chills, and then the carcass cutting yield is about 74 percent for bone-in retail cuts or 65 percent for boneless, closely trimmed cuts. A half hog is simply the whole-carcass figure divided by two.
| Live weight | Hot carcass (hanging) | Whole hog, bone-in | Whole hog, boneless | Half hog, bone-in | Half hog, boneless |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 lb | 175 lb | 125 lb | 110 lb | 62 lb | 55 lb |
| 280 lb | 196 lb | 140 lb | 123 lb | 70 lb | 61 lb |
| 300 lb | 210 lb | 150 lb | 132 lb | 75 lb | 66 lb |
Method: live weight x 70% dressing = hot carcass; x (1 - 3.5% shrink) = chilled carcass; x 74% (bone-in) or 65% (boneless) cutting yield = take-home pork, divided by two for a half. Percentages from UW-Madison Extension; rounded to the nearest pound. Your hog's breed, fat cover and whether the skin or head stays on will move these numbers, so use your processor's hanging weight when you have it. Our hog share calculator runs the math on a real hanging weight and price.
What cuts do you choose on a half hog cut sheet?
- Shoulder: roasts for pulled pork, blade steaks, or grind it for sausage.
- Loin: chop thickness, bone-in or boneless, and whether to keep the tenderloin whole.
- Belly: cure and smoke it as bacon, or take it fresh. Curing is usually an add-on priced by the pound.
- Ham: whole or half hams, steaks, fresh or cured and smoked.
- Trim and fat: sausage flavors such as breakfast, Italian or brats, and whether to keep fat for lard.
Boneless cuts and more sausage lower your take-home pounds because bone and excess fat are removed, but the amount of edible lean stays the same either way.
How much freezer space does half a hog need?
UW-Madison Extension puts packaged retail pork at 35 to 40 pounds per cubic foot of freezer space. At 62 pounds, a bone-in half from a 250-pound hog needs about 2 cubic feet; a half from a 300-pound hog at 75 pounds needs about 2 cubic feet as well, with a little more room for odd-shaped hams.
For the beef equivalent, see how to buy a beef share, and for breed and raising differences read our heritage breed pigs guide.
Find a farm selling hog shares: browse farm-direct share offers and local processors on the Butcher Bud directory.
Last verified: October 2026 by the Butcher Bud editorial team against UW-Madison Extension yield data. Your farm and processor will quote exact weights and prices.