Slaughter and meat qualities of purebred and crossbred bulls of the Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy breed

Abstract

Predicting the composition of cattle carcasses is crucial for both producers and processors. The commercial value of carcasses is related to the composition of their tissues (the ratio of muscle, fat and bone). Ukraine, with a signifcant portion of beef from dairy breeds, must align national carcass evaluation standards with international norms due to its accession to the European Community. The article presents the results of studies of the qualitative characteristics of carcasses of 21-month-old bulls of the Ukrainian Black-and-White dairy breed and its crossbreds with Holstein. The animals were slaughtered in a slaughterhouse in the village of Kalynivka, Brovary district, Kyiv region. The diference between the groups of bulls by age was up to 5 %. After slaughtering the animals, the conformation of the carcasses was determined in accordance with the EUROP (2008) methodology. According to the JMGA classifcation (2000), the colour of muscle and adipose tissue was assessed using a colour scale from 1 to 7, and the marbling of the m. longissimus dorsi between the 12th and 13th rib was assessed on a scale from 1 to 12. Purebred bulls of the Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy breed tended to be superior to crossbreds in terms of live and slaughter weight. According to the morphological composition of carcasses, purebred animals also tended to be superior to their mixed peers in terms of muscle tissue content, including the highest and frst grades. Evaluation of the quality of carcasses of experimental animals according to world standards showed that 21-month-old bulls of the Ukrainian Black-and-White dairy breed received a slightly higher score (by 6.7 %) for carcass conformation (meatiness) and marbling (by 12.9 %). However, they tended to have a smaller (by 14.2 %) thickness of fat on the carcass and a lower (by 12.0 %) development of fat. The practical signifcance of the data is to obtain knowledge about the signs of slaughter, morphological composition and quality characteristics of carcasses of dairy animals of Ukraine, which are fed by farms for slaughter, which are used in world practices to determine the value of carcasses. Key words: conformation, marbling, technological properties of beef, meat productivity.