The Muscle-Bone Relationship in Beef2

Abstract

Live animal weight, chilled carcass weight, primal cut weight, and estimated carcass lean in almost all instances were significantly and positively related to the weights and various linear measurements of the fore and hind cannon bones. On the other hand, the association with the cannon bone measurements and primal cuts and estimated carcass lean were greatly reduced when calculated on a percentile basis. When the effects of live weight were held constant, width and circumference measurements of the hind and fore cannons were associated with 15 to 25% of the variation existing in ribeye area. The joint effects of live weight and each of the cannon bone measurements considered separately, accounted for only 14 to 34% of the variation in ribeye area. Radiographic measurements of the dorsal and lateral view of the lumbar vertebra disclosed that width of the body of the lumbar vertebra and width of the vertical processes were the measurements most closely associated with ribeye area, accounting for 22 and 20% of the variation in ribeye area, respectively. When the effects of live weight were held constant, width of the transverse processes and height of the anterior articular processes were equal to the two previous measurements in predicting rib-eye area. The joint effects of live weight and each of these four measurements of the lumbar vertebra explains only 32 to 36% of the variation existing in ribeye area. Results indicate that both cannon bone measurements and radiographs of the lumbar vertebra are related to muscling. However, the relationships are not high enough to be useful for predictive purposes. Copyright © . .