A COMPARISON OF ULTRASONICS WITH THE RULER PROBE FOR THE PREDICTION OF CARCASS YIELD IN SWINE

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Abstract
A total of 550 pigs were used in a study to examine the accuracy and precision of ultrasonics and the ruler probe for the estimation of carcass yield. Three experiments were conducted that involved collecting data under test station and farm conditions. Various ultrasonic and ruler probe measurements were made on the live animals as well as carcass measurements in each of the three different experiments. Experiment 1 included 156 boars in a central test station; in experiment 2, measurements were collected from 304 boars on 20 farms under field conditions; and experiment 3 consisted of a cut-out test on 59 R.O.P. test pigs as well as obtaining live measurements similar to those collected in experiments 1 and 2. In addition, off-midline fat and lean probes were taken. Results of the study indicate that the ruler probe method and the ultrasonic method are comparable with each other, and quite accurate, for the measurement of backfat thickness in live swine. Furthermore, loin eye area can be accurately measured with ultrasonics. Variability in accuracy and precision of both techniques was found between experiments. Significant increases of approximately 20 and 10% in degree of precision were found for the prediction of carcass yield by including ultrasonic measurements of loin eye area and loin lean:fat ratio, respectively, with measurements of backfat thickness. The ultrasonic technique was found to be quite satisfactory for field and test station application.

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