Prediciton of Lean Composition of Live Market Weight Swine by Indirect Methods2

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Abstract
Two experiments and a field study were conducted to compare Electronic Meat Measuring Equipment (EMME)6 with 40K as an indirect means of estimating the lean body composition of live pigs. The results indicate that either EMME or 40K in combination with shrunk body weight are useful in predicting the weight of carcass protein (R2 = .78 and .78, respectively in experiment 1) and lean cuts (R2 = .80 and .82, respectively in experiment 1) in the live pig by non-destructive (indirect) means. Those predictions were also improved with the addition of longissimus muscle area and average backfat thickness. These relationships were lower in experiment 2 and in the field study where shrunk body weight was less variable indicating the importance of body weight in predicting body composition. However, when the variation in body weight was reduced, so was the usefulness of body weight in predicting the weight of carcass protein (R2 = .13) and lean cuts (R2 = .18). These results have shown that EMME and 40K have value in predicting body composition when the variation in body weight approaches zero. The results of the field study further confirmed the usefulness of EMME under practical conditions.