The estimation of beef carcass composition from subcutaneous fat measurements taken on the intact side using different probing instruments

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Abstract
SUMMARY: Fat thickness measurements, taken over the M. longissimus between the 6th and 13th ribs by the automatic-recording probes, SFK Meat-Fat probe (MF), Hennessy and Chong Fat Depth Indicator (FDI) and Ulster probe (UP), and a simple ruler probe (RP), were compared with one another and a visual fat score (VSC) in terms of the precision with which carcass lean and subcutaneous fat percentages were predicted. The comparisons were made in four separate trials with RP and VSC common to all of them. A total of 182 carcasses were involved; 130 of these were probed both hot and cold. Comparisons were made among carcasses of the same weight.VSC was the best single predictor in most circumstances. Fat thickness measurements taken on the cold carcass provided a more precise prediction than those taken on the hot carcass. There was an interaction between the relative precision of the MF and RP probes and the condition of the carcass: the former generally gave the more precise prediction on cold carcasses and the latter on hot carcasses. Measurements taken by FDI tended to be better predictors than those taken by RP on both hot and cold carcasses. The use of two fat thickness measurements gave an improvement in precision over the best individual fat thickness measurements. There was also an improvement in precision in most circumstances when a fat thickness measurement was used in addition to VSC.There was little indication that specific fat measurements were particularly precise predictors when taken by specific probes, and no fat measurement was consistently the best predictor. A measurement taken 7·5 cm from the dorsal mid line at the 6th rib occurred most commonly in pairs of measurements giving the most precise prediction.

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