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After the steer is slaughtered, it is cut into four pieces, called quarters for easy handling. This is done by first splitting the carcass down the backbone into two bilateral halves. Each halve is divided into the forequarter and hindquarter.

The quartered carcass is then further reduced into primal cuts and the subprimal and fabricated cuts.

The primal cuts of beef are the chuck, brisket and shank, rib, short plate, short loin, sirloin, flank and round.

An entire beef carcass can range in weight from 500 to more than 800 pounds (225-360 kg).

 

More about the forequarter

More about the hindquarter