Body weight and carcass dressing as affected by sex class, breed type, muscle thickness, age and provenance of Venezuelan cattle

Abstract:

Two data sets of 439 fed males (bulls and steers) (MALES) and 155 fed cattle (bulls, steers and heifers) (MIXED) chosen by their good finish and cutting-out potential were used to study variation in body weight (BW), carcass weight (CW) and carcass dressing (DRESSING) according to muscle thickness score (MUSCLING), breed-type, region of provenance (PROVENANCE), sex class, and age by dentition. Correlations between the dependent variables and carcass conformation were analyzed. In MALES, MUSCLING and PROVENANCE affected DRESSING (P<0.05), 1.4% in favor of cattle with thicker MUSCLING, and 1.6% in favor of cattle originated from the Andean region versus their Mid-Western region counterparts. Sex class (in MIXED), and PROVENANCE (in MALES), affected both BW and CW (P<0.01). In MIXED, an age exceeding 36 months, raised the CW (P<0.05). In MALES, MUSCLING was associated (P<0.01) with carcass conformation (r=0.53) and DRESSING (r=0.18). In MIXED, sex class  breed-type interaction tended to affect DRESSING (P=0.055) with the Zebu type surpassing the Dairy type in DRESSING (64% vs. 54%, respectively) while bulls and steers performed different in DRESSING, depending on breed-type (P<0.06).

Año de publicación:

2013

Keywords:

Fuente:

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