When characterizing the productivity of cattle and other types of farm animals, the term “slaughter meat yield” is often used. But many novice breeders have a rather vague idea of what is hidden underneath. Meanwhile, such a concept presupposes a specific formulation and clear definable meanings. It may vary depending on the type and breed of pet.
Cattle meat
How much do cow lungs weigh?
Beef lungs are a widely known and valued offal by chefs. On average, the lungs weigh 3-4 kilograms and are bright red in color. Contains water, connective tissue and blood vessels. Elastin and collagen give the lungs elasticity.
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Killer exit
To determine it, you need to know the slaughter weight (slaughter weight) of the animal, which is the weight of clean meat after cutting.
It does not include:
- skin;
- internal organs;
- legs (hooves and ankles);
- cattle horns.
In turn, slaughter yield is the ratio of the slaughter weight of livestock to live weight, expressed in shares or percentages.
Influencing factors
A large yield of meat based on live weight is direct evidence of the high quality of pork. Live weight depends on the breed and sex of the animal, and the abundance of food. However, large live weight does not guarantee high slaughter efficiency - the weight can be concentrated in the bones or fat of the internal cavities, unsuitable for food.
Therefore, farmers and breeders are guided by a list of factors influencing meat yield.
Gender of the animal
Females are lighter in scale, their body contains much more fat and less muscle (the female hormone is responsible for this body structure). If you keep a pig for the sake of fat, then it is more profitable to slaughter the sow at the age of two or three years. If the goal is to obtain juicy pork, the ideal option is a piglet or a young boar. With cattle, things are a little different. Calf fat is not that valuable, so only muscle tissue is calculated. Definitely, in this case it is more profitable to slaughter a bull.
Breed
The breed of livestock is of particular importance. There are dairy or meat orientations for cows, meat, meat-fat and tallow varieties for pigs. This will be discussed in more detail at the end of the article.
Body type
It was also noted that the size of the animal itself, in particular its height, directly affects the slaughter efficiency. This rule applies even among animals of the same orientation. With the same nutrition, small pigs and cattle, more compact than their relatives, produce more muscle.
Fatness
Fatness directly affects the amount of the final product. The more meat, the more valuable the carcass.
However, fatness also depends on a number of factors:
- animal health;
- feed nutritional value;
- climatic conditions;
- season of raising livestock (in winter there is a delay in growth, the animal has less weight, and the meat yield also decreases).
Nutrition
Feeding directly affects the animal's growth rate and the muscle-to-fat ratio in its body. The more varied the diet, the healthier and stronger the cattle. A high intake of plant-based protein is important for pigs.
Stress before slaughter
Although stress before slaughter should be avoided, since the released hormone will spoil the taste of the product, short-term shock during introduction to the slaughter area is almost inevitable. It does not have time to affect the quality of the finished product, so it is not taken into account. Moreover, it does not affect the meat yield in any way. However, this only applies to short-term stress. Long-term stress is a real disaster for any organism. Even if the animal does not refuse food, stress has a destructive effect on all cells. There is depletion of livestock, a decrease in the amount of both fat and meat.
Methods for determining weight without scales
There are several different ways to determine a pig's weight without using a scale. The three most used among them are:
- According to the measurement table.
- Using the body condition factor.
- According to the age.
According to the measurement table
The method of measuring the body weight of a piglet, which uses a pig weight chart, is one of the simplest, but at the same time the most accurate. The error of this method of calculating weight ranges from 4–10%.
To carry out calculations, it is initially necessary to take 2 measurements of the animal’s body:
- Pig chest circumference. The easiest way to carry out this procedure is to use a measuring tape. It is wrapped vertically around the animal's chest and back, so that one side of the tape touches the back edge of the shoulder blades.
- Pig body length. After completing the previous measurements, the tape is stretched along the animal’s back, with its beginning applied to the base of the piglet’s head, and the measurement is carried out in the area of the base of the tail.
When measuring to obtain the most accurate values, it is extremely important to consider the following points:
- the pig must stand during measurements;
- the animal's head should be slightly raised up;
- measurements are taken 3 hours before the piglet eats.
To comply with the first two points, the animal must be interested in something. Most often, a small container of food is used for this, which is brought to the piglet’s nose at the desired height. While the pig sniffs the treat and stands motionless, the performer quickly takes the necessary measurements.
The data obtained during the measurement is substituted into the corresponding column and row in the table (it is presented below). After this, the point of their intersection is found, it will indicate the weight of the individual whose measurements were taken.
For example, if the body length of an adult pig is 1.26 m with a chest circumference of 1.24 m, then the weight of such an animal is approximately 161 kg.
Using the body condition factor
The second method is used if there is no access to the table. It involves more complex calculations, for which the same measurements of the animal and a certain value of the animal’s fatness coefficient are taken as the basis.
The indicated coefficients have clear meanings and are quite easy to remember:
- for animals with insufficient fat, the coefficient is 162;
- to deduct the body weight of pigs with an average degree of fatness, this figure is 156;
- when determining the weight of animals with pronounced signs of obesity, the value 142 is used.
The desired indicator is selected by assessing pigs by eye. Accordingly, to make the right choice in such a matter, a certain skill is required.
Further calculations are carried out according to the following plan:
- The girth of the pig's chest is multiplied by the length of its body from the back of the head to the base of the tail.
- The resulting value is divided by the coefficient selected after assessing the animal’s physique.
The number obtained as a result of such calculations is precisely the piglet’s body weight.
For example, the body length of a piglet is 58 cm. Its chest circumference is 72 cm. The physique is assessed as moderately well-fed. In this case, the calculations will look like this:
Accordingly, the weight of the young is 25.9 kg. Comparing this value with the table, we see that the number 25 is indicated in the corresponding line. Taking into account the existing error, we can conclude that the method is effective.
According to the age
Some breeders determine the animal's weight based on its age. Undoubtedly, this parameter affects the weight of the animal. But with this approach the error is significantly higher, so it is possible to determine only the average weight of a pig without specific values. The reason for this may be the difference in weight between animals of different breeds. In addition, the diet and living conditions used on the farm also play a big role in the weight gain of pigs.
There are a lot of tables for identifying pigs by age on the Internet. Moreover, in addition to the general ones, you can also find more specialized collections of values on the network, focused on a specific breed line of pigs and living conditions.
It is extremely useful for a breeder to know the approximate weight of a pig. This value allows you to timely adjust the animal’s diet in order to increase productivity, prevent the development of various diseases in time, and clearly determine the animal’s daily feeding rate. But to determine this value at home, it is not necessary to purchase expensive electronic scales. It is enough to carefully familiarize yourself with the methods presented above for determining the body weight of pets.
Slaughter
Immediately before slaughter, the animal must be examined by a veterinarian. If during such an inspection any disease is detected, the carcass must be disposed of. In some cases, slaughter has to be postponed. This may be due to recent vaccination or treatment with antibacterial drugs.
Before slaughter, the following manipulations are carried out:
- Cleaning fur and hooves, washing animals.
- Keeping on a starvation diet for 12-18 hours before slaughter, for young animals 6 hours is enough. You should also not use a longer period of fasting; this can immediately reduce productivity by up to 4%. During this period, the animal should be kept in a calm environment and protected from stress: the hormone that is produced during this process significantly worsens the quality of the meat.
- Weighing to determine slaughter weight.
Important! In summer, it is recommended to slaughter in the morning, since in extreme heat the meat dries out quickly. In winter, the time of day is not so important. Only with proper slaughter can you obtain high-quality products and extend their shelf life.
Yield of meat and fat in various breeds
All pig breeds are divided into three large groups:
- bacon (meat) breeds;
- tallow rocks;
- meat-fat breeds.
Depending on the “purpose”, the content of a particular product varies, since the breeds were bred by breeders specifically to improve the animal’s performance in some respect.
Bacon
This direction is characterized by the largest percentage of muscles. Such pigs can quickly accumulate muscle mass, which, even in suckling piglets, is 2 times higher than that of representatives of sebaceous breeds.
Meat categories are the most valuable because the yield of pure pork in some cases reaches 70%! And lard accounts for only 15%.
The most popular bacon breeds include:
- Urzhumskaya;
- landrace;
- Duroc;
- Don;
- early ripening meat.
Meat-fat
These breeds live up to their name - the ratio of fat to muscle in their body is 1:1. Most often, the meat yield of these animals is 40-42%, and the fat yield is 35-37%.
In most regions of the world, farmers breed these pigs, because their meat has the greatest juiciness and excellent taste due to equal proportions between fat and muscle tissue.
The most common meat and greasy pigs:
- Ukrainian steppe speckled;
- Siberian northern;
- Breitovskaya.
Greasy
Sebaceous animals are characterized by a short period of muscle growth, while fat accumulates steadily throughout their lives. Their body has a very high content of subcutaneous fat, which is valued much more than internal fat. The yield of fat after slaughter can be from 50 to 60% of the carcass weight. The muscle mass content does not even exceed 20%.
These pigs include:
- Mirgorodskaya;
- Mangalitsa;
- large black.
Product quality
Meat is tissue of muscle, fat, connective and bone nature. A small presence of lymph nodes, vessels, and cartilage is acceptable in meat. The muscle tissue of the animal makes up 50-75% of the total meat. It also depends on the fatness of the animal and its membership in the natural group.
Meat is nutritious with proteins (up to 22%), fats (up to 2-3%), inorganic substances (vitamins, carbohydrates, amino acids and other compounds - up to 5%).
Adipose tissue, or refractory lipid, obtained from aged animals is absorbed very poorly. The best digestibility of this product occurs when consuming young meat or the meat of a castrated animal.
Fresh meat has a unique texture, smell and taste, so it may not be to everyone’s taste.
3 hours after slaughter, the rigor rigor stage begins. It is characterized by the fact that excess moisture comes out of the meat. The smell and taste of this meat are no longer too pronounced, it is tender and juicy.
Slaughter yield of pork depending on the weight of the animal
Average pig weight
A white breed sow weighs about 320-340 kg. The weight of a wild boar of the same breed tends to reach 350 kilograms! The average weight of a young individual at the age of 9-10 months is 240 kg. Vietnamese pot bellies gain up to 150 kg, but they are most often slaughtered when they reach 85 kg.
Zoological breeders have calculated that per 100 kg of live weight of a large white pig there is an average of 67 kg of meat and 19 kg of lard. The yield rates for bones, tendons and meat (without skin) are presented in the table.
Meat
As mentioned above, the average meat yield of pigs is 67%. However, depending on the fatness and weight of the animal, it may differ. Of the 80 kg weight of a Vietnamese pig, clean meat exceeds 64 kg.
For a large white pig, slaughter yield depends on weight:
- with an average weight of 170 kg it is 81%;
- with a weight over 200 kg - 84%.
Salo
This indicator also varies among different breeds. The percentage of fat in an animal's body depends on age. Teenagers of any breed have no more than 5-6% fat. In mature animals, especially sows, the fat content sometimes approaches 50%.
By-products
By-products are divided into two broad categories, depending on quality, value and nutritional suitability. Below are the percentages of by-products relative to the total weight of the pig.
The first category includes:
- liver – 1.9-2%;
- kidneys – 0.34%;
- language – 0.28%;
- heart – 0.39-0.4%;
- diaphragm and accompanying muscles – 0.5%.
The second category includes:
- stomach – 0.83-0.84%;
- esophageal tissue – 0.09%;
- tail – 0.09%;
- tracheal tissue – 0.11%;
- lungs – 0.39%;
- ears – 0.5-0.6%;
- legs – 1.84%;
- head (excluding brain) – 7.1%.
What are the main production costs?
All the main costs for developing your own beef production consist of the following main points: the purchase or reconstruction of premises that are suitable for fattening animals, the purchase of livestock and equipment, feed, as well as the payment of wages to staff. With investments from third parties in our state, everything is quite sad, since they are not eager to invest money in a rather risky area.
Today, only three regions in the country are able to independently provide themselves with the necessary amount of beef. But they are all located in the south. The total amount of beef produced by domestic enterprises does not exceed 1.5 million tons, which is very, very small for a state of this size.
Meat yield table
Some weight loss occurs during deboning of the carcass. There are special tables that allow you to determine the slaughter yield, knowing only the breed and live weight of livestock. The slaughter yield of pork is shown in the figure.
There is a table characterizing the yield of beef (clean meat) from live weight depending on the breed:
As can be seen from the tables, it is most profitable to keep bulls and boars of meat breeds for meat. For lard - sows of tall breeds. And the highest milk yields are provided by dairy cows.
Slaughter yield of beef
Like pigs, the "meatiness" of cattle is highly directional. At the same time, a general trend is observed: the meat yield of males is much higher than that of females. On average, the weight of a bull reaches 750 kilograms, a heifer weighs no more than 400 kilograms. However, these are average figures. Live weight and slaughter yield of beef directly depend on the breed.
The generalized percentage of veal production is shown in the figure.
Dairy cattle
Live weight of cattle significantly affects meat yield. The average of these animals is 55%. The milk of such cows has a high fat content (4.2-4.8%), but the meat products are not of particular quality. In dairy cows, a valuable product is the udder, which has a delicate taste.
On average, the weight of heifers in this direction reaches 430-520 kg, and bulls - 800-850 kg.
The most popular dairy products:
- red steppe;
- brown Latvian;
- Holstein dairy;
- Kholmogorskaya
Beef cattle
The developed body of such animals contains a huge amount of dietary product. The percentage of valuable meat yield - beef - from live weight reaches 60-62%. The weight of a bull can approach 1500 kg, cows weigh about 600 kg. At the same time, milk yield is very small (3-4 times lower than that of dairy breeds), and the milk has a relatively low fat content (3%).
Meat cattle include:
- Galloway
- Shorthorn.
- Devonian
- Kalmyk
What are the requirements for first-calf heifers and cows?
As mentioned above, dairy cattle have less developed muscle tissue, and therefore animals with satisfactory muscle mass can be classified as Category I, which is determined by the following indicators:
- the presence of an angular body;
- the shoulder blades are weakly defined;
- maculacus and ischial tuberosities are faintly prominent;
- in the lumbar, sacral regions, as well as at the base of the tail, adipose tissue can be felt.
In terms of fatness, group II includes cattle with worse examination results:
- presence of protruding bones;
- muscles are poorly developed;
- weak fat deposits.
First-calf heifers weighing up to 350 kg have the following indicators:
- well-developed fat layer;
- round body;
- the bone tubercles and shoulder blades do not have sharp protrusions.
Required documents
You will need to obtain permits from the local branch of the SES, Rospotrebnadzor and the state veterinary service.
In addition, permission from local authorities is required. Every employee in your workshop must have a health certificate.
It will take at least three months to complete all documents. Total costs are about 5 million rubles. Production profitability is at least 40%. Thus, a business plan for fattening bulls will allow you to organize a very profitable production from scratch.
How to determine the weight of cattle from measurements
Private breeders are not always able to determine the weight of cattle correctly. In this case, experienced farmers recommend using the following method. Measure the girth of the chest behind the shoulder blades, and then get the length of the torso. Multiply the resulting centimeters by each other, then divide the number by 100. Then multiply by 2-2.5. When using a similar formula, the error is only 5%.
Expert opinion Dobryshev Sergey Anatolyevich Professional rabbit breeder and hare breeder with 30 years of experience
We also recommend using this method of determining weight by measurements. Using a tape, measure the oblique length of the carcass at the protruding points, and then find out the parameters of the sternum in the area behind the shoulder blades.
Using a special table, determine live weight. This option gives an error of 20-30 kg.
Heifers and bulls
Meat productivity and the mass obtained after slaughter depend on the gender of the cattle. Cows are much smaller in size than bulls. In addition, age affects the fatness of cattle. Let's give a clear example: a heifer at one year of age grows up to 200 kg, and at three years of age - up to 300 or more.
Maximum figures (450-500 kg) are achieved only at 5 years.
Let's look at changes in body condition in bulls.
Expert opinion Dobryshev Sergey Anatolyevich Professional rabbit breeder and hare breeder with 30 years of experience
They weigh 350-400 kg per year, but during this period they are not subject to castration. Otherwise, they stop actively growing. When the muscles are sufficiently formed, the animal is slaughtered, this happens from about 20 months.
If you closely monitor the bull’s diet and the conditions under which it is kept, the live weight reaches 900 kg. The main condition is to keep the males separate from the females. When mating, cattle lose a lot of energy and a large number of kilograms.
Breed and weight
How much meat is in an average cow, depending on the crossbreed:
- Meat - a bull at the age of one year already weighs 450-500 kg, and a newborn calf - 40-50 kg. When fed with milk, the young grow even faster. High meat productivity, which reaches 80%. Meat has a high content of fat and animal protein.
- Dairy animals are the smallest animals. The weight of females does not exceed 300 kg, and males – 600 kg. The meat yield is no more than 50%.
- Combined - bulls are fattened for slaughter, and cows are fed for the production of milk-containing products and breeding of young animals. They are similar in body weight to beef cows. In this case, the meat yield is up to 65-70%.
Slaughter weight and yield
This term refers to the net weight of the carcass without the head, internal organs, lower legs and skin. Farmers first butcher the animal and then weigh it. Slaughter yield is the weight of cattle after slaughter relative to live weight, which is determined as a percentage.
Beef bulls are slaughtered within a year after birth. This is due to high rates of cash expenditure on maintenance. However, adult individuals give a slaughter yield of up to 65%, which is an excellent result.
At the same time, the norm for dairy cows is 40-50%, and for beef cows – 50-60%. Its value decreases after skinning and gutting the animal. The Belgian Blue breed has the highest rate, as it has a high content of animal protein. The yield reaches up to 76%.
Indicators for bulls and young animals
Males are characterized as follows:
- well developed muscles;
- round or barrel-shaped body with fat deposits;
- absence of protruding skeletal bones, tubercles, shoulder blades and hips. All these parts are covered with muscle and fat;
- the presence of a wide thoracic and pelvic region.
Castrated bulls should have a scrotum filled with fatty tissue.
Poor body condition in bulls is defined as follows:
- muscles are developed satisfactorily;
- the body is angular;
- the sternum and croup area are compressed laterally;
- protrusion of the maclacae and spinous processes is allowed.
Neutered men have a toned, wrinkled scrotum without fat deposits.
The amount of meat in a cattle carcass depends on belonging to a particular breed group, feeding methods, fattening activities, quality maintenance and zootechnical work.
When fattening for slaughter, bulls belonging to the meat and dairy sectors are classified based on live weight:
Animals belonging to the first and second classes are automatically classified as category I in terms of fatness; animals weighing up to 350 kg are assessed based on external data.
Assignment of category II occurs in the following cases:
- the presence of an angular body structure;
- poorly developed muscles and fat layer;
- there are protruding bone tubercles.
Calves that have reached the age of over two weeks are subject to slaughter. Until this moment, the young animals have not fully formed the muscles and fat layer, which still has a gelatinous structure. An animal is classified as group I if it has the following characteristics:
- weight more than 30 kg;
- muscles are moderately developed;
- the bones protrude slightly;
- the presence of a smooth coat;
- mucous membranes have a white or yellow tint without any admixture of red.
