A note on the prediction of muscular tissue weight in sides of beef

Abstract

Callow (1962) examined methods of predicting the tissue content of sides of beef carcasses from the result of dissecting various joints, reaching the conclusion that no short cuts were possible and that dissection of the whole side was necessary. An empirical rule, suggested by Professor D. M. S. Watson, that one-third of the live-weight of beef animals is muscular tissue, was found to give a more precise estimate of the muscular tissue in a carcass than the weights of muscular tissue dissected from any individual joint. Such an assumption, that all animals have an equal proportion of muscular tissue per unit of live-weight, would be of no value in differentiating between lean and fat animals when slaughtered at a constant live-weight as is commonly done, for example, at the end of progeny tests.