Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:51:26.379Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Composition of beef carcasses: III. The reliability and use of visual assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

J. M. Harries ,
R. W. Pomeroy  and
D. R. Williams
J. M. Harries
Affiliation:
Meat Research Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Langford, Bristol
R. W. Pomeroy
Affiliation:
Meat Research Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Langford, Bristol
D. R. Williams
Affiliation:
Meat Research Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Langford, Bristol
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The technique of visual appraisal of intact sides of beef was used on most of the carcasses previously described in Parts I and II of this series. Tests of discrimination and consistency were carried out for each of the judges taking part, and their assessments were compared with the results of subsequent dissection of the carcasses.

It was found that visual appraisal of the subcutaneous fat content of a carcass was very good, especially with the aid of photographic standards, though a curious tendency to match the standards consistently to carcasses of a higher proportion of fat than those used for the photographs themselves was apparent. This did not materially affect the use that can be made of visual judgements in predicting fat content and it was found that expert judgement alone is capable of predictive accuracy roughly equal to that obtained from simple measurements, though not as good as that obtained by partial dissection, as described in Part II. Equations are given for the prediction of carcass composition, using visual appraisal in combination with other variables.

The appraisal of conformation was not so successful; reasons for this are advanced, and suggestions made for future improvement.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , October 1974 , pp. 203 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blackith, R. E. & Raiment, R. A. (1971). Multivariate Morphometrics. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gatherum, D. P., Harrington, G. & Pomeroy, R. W. (1958). A study of certain subjective assessments important in animal improvement. Occupational Psychology 32, 229–35.Google Scholar
Gatherum, D. P., Harrington, G. & Pomeroy, R. W. (1959). Visual judgements of quality in meat. I. Assessments of the proportion of lean to fat in bacon from photographs of the cut side. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 52, 320–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatherum, D. P., Harrington, G. & Pomeroy, R. W. (1960 a). Visual judgements of quality in meat. II. A simplification of the assessment of the proportion of lean to fat in bacon. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 54, 145–57.Google Scholar
Gatherum, D. P., Harrington, G. & Pomeroy, R. W. (1960 b). Preliminary studies of eye judgements of the gammons of bacon pigs in relation to dissection data. Animal Production 2, 175–85.Google Scholar
Gatherum, D. P., Harrington, G. & Pomeroy, R. W. (1961). Visual judgements of quality in meat. III. Assessments of bacon qualities by naive and experienced judges using photographic reference standards. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 57, 401–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, Sir John (1963). Carcass Appraisal and Meat Grading. Conference of Commonwealth Agricultural Societies, Sydney, 1963.Google Scholar
Pomeroy, R. W., Williams, D. R., Harries, J. M. & Ryan, P. O. (1974). Composition of beef carcasses, I. Material, measurements, jointing and tissue separation. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 83, 67–77.Google Scholar
Williams, D. R. (1969). The visual description of carcasses. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 73, 495–9.Google Scholar
Williams, D. R., Pomeroy, R. W., Harries, J. M. & Ryan, P. O. (1974). Composition of beef carcasses. II. The use of regression equations to estimate total tissue components from observations on intact and quartered sides and partial dissection data. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 83, 79–85.Google Scholar