Carcass characteristics of young red deer farmed on hill pasture

Abstract

SUMMARYCarcass characteristics were studied in young red deer raised on a Scottish hill farm with heather·dominant pasture. Stags slaughtered in September when 15 or 27 months old were very lean, and entire and castrate animals were similar in weight. At 15 months they were barely a half of their expected mature weight. With no pre-slaughter fasting, dressed carcass weight was 49–51% of live weight. A more detailed analysis of carcass conformation was made in a study of entire stags, castrate stags and hinds slaughtered when 15 months old after being held overnight without food or water. The three groups were similar in that their dressed carcasses weighed about 52% of live weight and the content of first class lean meat amounted to 32% of live weight. There was only 4·5% of chemical fat in the empty carcass.The pH of the meat 36 h post mortem often remained high in the stag groups, relative to a mean value of pH 5·7 found in shot wild stags. This high-pH character was little affected by the severity of stress immediately before slaughter, nor by the availability of food. It seemed to be caused by holding the animals in unfamiliar surroundings for some 16 h before slaughter.