Enter live weight and animal type to estimate hanging weight, freezer weight, and a cut-by-cut breakdown of what you'll bring home.
Live weight is what the animal weighs on the hoof. Hanging weight (dressed weight) is what remains after slaughter — hide, head, organs, and feet removed. Freezer weight is what you actually bring home after the butcher removes bone, trims fat, and cuts the carcass. For most animals you lose roughly 30–40% going from hanging weight to freezer weight.
A rough guide: plan on about 1 cubic foot of freezer space per 35–40 pounds of take-home meat. A whole butchered pig needs roughly 3.5–4 cubic feet. Half a beef needs 8–10 cubic feet. A batch of 25 chickens needs about 6 cubic feet. A standard 7-cubic-foot chest freezer handles one whole pig or two dozen chickens comfortably.
It depends on the animal. Chickens and rabbits are very manageable to process at home with minimal equipment — a kill cone, a scalder or hot water, and a plucker or skinning knife. Pigs are doable at home with more setup. Beef is a serious undertaking that most homesteaders leave to a professional butcher, especially for a first animal. The savings on processing fees for chickens ($3–$6/bird) add up quickly at scale, making home processing one of the faster paybacks in homesteading.