The body and carcass composition of East African ruminants. I. The composition of ‘Improved Boran’ Bos indicus steer carcasses

Abstract

Fifty Boran Bos indicus steers, all of which were born during the same months, were reared together on grass without supplementary feeding, until required for slaughter. Pre-determined randomly selected groups of these steers were slaughtered at 1½, 2½, 3½, 4, 5 and 5½ years of age. Carcass analyses were carried out and the changing relationship between the edible carcass components themselves and of their relationship to live and carcass weights during growth were investigated. It was observed that certain components maintained a near constant relationship to each other throughout growth. It was also noted that compensatory growth of light-weight weaners enabled them to be as productive, in terms of final carcass weight and composition at 3½ and 4 years, as heavy-weight weaners.