TI 09. Variation in bull carcass trats in grassfed water buffalo and cattle and correlations with valuable cuts, trimmed fat and bone percentage

Abstract

Cut-out tests were conducted with whole males of grass-fed cattle (n=58) and water buffalo (n=38) previously evaluated for 10 different carcass traits at different commercial slaughter houses of Venezuela. Finish score and fat thickness in buffalo carcasses varied less (32 % and 58 %, respectively) than in cattle counterparts (37 % and 88 %, respectively). However, the proportion of fat trimmed (FAT) from buffalo carcasses varied much more than that of cattle (136 % vs. 26 %). Only the round width (RW) in buffaloes and ribeye area (REA) and RW in cattle were associated (r2 <0.16) with percent yield of most valuable, retail-ready cuts (MVC). REA was a common indicator of bone derived from MVC in both species. While FAT in cattle was only related to carcass weight (r2 < 0.08), a larger proportion of the variation (>55 %) in FAT from buffalo carcasses accounted for its direct relationship to round measurements, carcass weight, fat thickness and ribeye area, showing eligibility of these traits to predict FAT in bull carcasses from buffaloes.