Estimation of carcass characteristics in young beef cattle

Authors

• Hilkka Ruohomäki Agricultural Research Centre, Institute of Animal Breeding 01301 Vantaa 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.71851

Abstract

In the present study the main objectives were to determine whether sufficiently accurate estimation of live weight, carcass weight and carcass composition with live measurements is possible, and whether an accurate estimation of carcass composition with any other procedure than total carcass dissection is possible. The material consisted of 205 1-year old steers and bulls and 174 bull calves. Within experiment each trait of each animal was corrected for age, breed and feeding with a correction factor obtained with the least squares method. In the stepwise regression analysis the results for both age groups were analysed separately. From live measurements the best estimators in both age groups were width of chest, heart girth and natural length. The most reliable predictor of meat quantity was carcass weight. Revalue was 96 % for both age groups. In estimation of meat percentage the Revalue obtained for the olds with cutting results of fore shanks was 56 %, the respective value for the 1-year olds was considerably lower. With 1-yearolds the carcass weight and some byproducts gave the highest estimations for the quantity and percentage of fat, R2 were 62 % and 50 % respectively, and for the 14-yearolds the kidney fats and the cutting results of flanks gave the highest estimations, R2 were 70 % and 59 % respectively. For the quantity and percentage of bone the R2 for the 1-yearolds obtained with cutting results of shanks were 68 % and 55 % respectively, and for the 14-year olds 82 % and 70 % respectively. When the cutting results of the fore and hind quarters were used as estimators the R2 obtained for all the traits were higher in both age groups than with any other estimator, R2 obtained with carcass quality scores remained lower.