Quantitative relationships between the tissue composition of bovine carcass and easily obtainable indicators

The most accurate determination of beef carcass quality involves dissection of cut or entire carcass. This, however, is very costly and cumbersome. An alternative is to determine easily obtainable indicators. The objective of this study was to derive quantitative relationships between indirect carcass indicators and measured carcass tissue composition. A meta-analysis was applied on 25 published trials with cattle. The selected indicators were USDA yield grade, fat thickness, marbling, ribeye area and carcass conformation and fatness scores. The USDA yield grade was the most highly related to changes in carcass adipose tissue and muscle weights. Fat thickness was also related to changes in both adipose tissue and muscle weights. Other indicators were less correlated with changes in carcass tissue composition. The relationships obtained in this study depend on measurement accuracy and different deposition kinetics for adipose tissue.