Carcass characteristics of draught cattle released for beef in Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Most cattle used for beef production in Ethiopia are Zebu breeds. Usually released for beef when they are aged for plowing and in poor body condition. However, there is little available information on carcass yield and percentage earned from these cattle. Therefore, the study was conducted to evaluate the carcass yield and the percentage of cattle released for beef after used in draught power. This study used 280 heads of male indigenous draught cattle released for beef. Each cattle were randomly measured for carcass and noncarcass components. Body weight was recorded as animals arrived. Hot carcasses were weighed and cold carcasses were estimated at 0.98 of the hot carcass weight. Dressing proportions were calculated from the ratio of hot carcass weight to slaughter weight. Descriptive statistics for carcass yield, edible and offal components were analyzed by SPSS. The average slaughter weight, hot carcass weight, dressing and shrinkage percentage recorded in this study was 247.93+5.27, 90.98+ 2.11, 36.98+0.94 and 0.74+0.02, respectively. The amount of total deboned lean meat was 60.38kg (24.35% of the slaughter body weight). The price of live animals and the amount of carcass and other edible parts attained from it, is not worthy of comparison and there was a loss of 402.66+ 0.29 Birr per each cattle. Therefore, draught cattle released for beef after draught power should be fattened either by farmers or beef farm to recover their body weight loss due to agricultural work load.