Use of carcass measurements to predict total edible meat in Mexican commercial cattle

Abstract

SUMMARYCarcass measurements have been used by various authors to predict total edible meat content of carcasses.Measurements were made on 180 commercial quality cattle of different phenotypes and sexes in a commercial slaughterhouse in Monterrey, N.L. Measurements were carcass weight, length, forequarter depth, side circumference, length of leg, length of forearm, leg shape, area of m.l.d. and total dissected meat. Multiple regressions were computed for both linear and allometric equations using a CDC 3300 computer.It was found that in both forms of the equation carcass weight accounted for the majority of the total variance (97·0% and 96·8% for the linear and the allometric forms respectively). Various measurements of forequarter depth improved the goodness of fit only slightly as did circumference of side and length of forearm.