The yields of wholesale cuts from carcasses of Aberdeen-Angus crosses fattened on grass and in yards

Abstract

1. Both sides of sixty-eight carcasses of Aberdeen-Angus cross steers and heifers were broken down into wholesale joints by the same butcher using a modification of the London and Home Counties style of cutting. Thirty-four of the cattle were fattened on grass in the summer of 1955 and the other thirty-four in yards during the following winter.2. Sides of steer carcasses averaged some 50–60 lb. heavier than those of heifers both in summer and winter, and the yard-fattened cattle gave sides averaging 10–20 lb. heavier than those from grassfattened cattle.3. The cuts along the underline of the animals (brisket and flanks) were increasing in weight at proportionally the greatest rate and the shin and hind-leg cuts at about half this rate, with those along the top of the back intermediate.4. At a side weight of 300 lb., steers were significantly lighter than heifers in the weight of kidney knob, cod fat, thin flank, forequarter flank, loin and rump, whereas they were significantly heavier than heifers in weight of leg, shin, topside, top rump and the neck cuts (clod and sticking). These differences suggested that at this weight of side, heifers were at a more advanced stage of development than steers.