Prediction of beef carcass yield from selected commercial cuts
expressed as a percentage of side weight
A.H. Kirton, J.J. Bass, B.W. Hogg, G.J.K. Mercer, D.M. Duganzich,
E.G. Woods
AgResearch, Ruakura Agricultural Centre, Private Bag 3123, Hamilton,
New Zealand.
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 1994,
54:205-208
Given that almost all beef carcasses intended for export from New
Zealand are boned out into cuts in the boning room of export plants, the
feasibility was investigated of carrying the identification of individual animals
from the point of slaughter through to sides in the boning room and using the
weights (percentages) of selected cuts to predict the yield of saleable meat. A
Ruakura beef cuts database with information from sides of 1461 bulls, 1097
steers, 320 heifers and 329 cows, all of known breeding, was used to test the
accuracy of beef saleable meat yield prediction from the weights of three
hindquarter cuts removed at the same time and site in the boning room. The
inside round (topside), outside round (silverside) and thick flank expressed as a
percentage of side weight were chosen for use alone and in multiple regression
to predict the percentage of the carcass available as saleable meat. A model
incorporating % inside and % outside and their interactions with sex (bull,
steer, heifer and cow) provided useful prediction of % meat yield (R2 0.77,
RSD 2.11%) and if hot carcass weight was added to the equation the R2
improved to 0.78 and the RSD was reduced to 2.06%. The sum of the inside
and outside expressed as a percentage of side weight gave the same accuracy of
prediction of percentage saleable meat yield as when they were treated as
separate independent variables. The use of thick flank gave no improvement in
prediction. These results should be compared with the present system where
sex class, fat class (grade) and hot carcass weight predicted yield with an R2
of 0.60 and an RSD of 2.80% for the same set of data.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
beef; carcass yield; prediction; inside; outside; thick flank;
commercial system.
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Last Updated 25-01-1997
