Dimitar Panayotov
Trakia University, Faculty of Agriculture, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Panayotov, D. (2021). Study on carcass characteristics in Boer goat kids. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 27 (6), 1212–1220
The study was conducted with four single born Boer goat kids, weaned at 120 days. Slaughter was conducted in a certified abattoir, and afterwards a carcass analysis was performed. The average slaughter weight (SW) of the studied kids was 28.25 kg. The percentage of the head (6.89%), skin (6.85%), fore and hind feet (2.77%), removed directly after slaughter was a total 19.15% of the SW (5.41 kg). The received sub-products weighted 3.748 kg in total or 13.27% of SW – 3.65% in first and 9.59% in second class. From the sub-products, in first class the liver had the largest percentage (1.76%), and in second class – the intestines (3.75%) and stomach (2.50%). From the stomach, the rumen had the largest percentage (63.12%), followed by the true stomach (16.32), and the lowest (7.80%) was the omasum. The weight ratio between the small and large intestines was 62.74%:37.26%. The average hot carcass weight (HCW) of the studied kids was 13.65 kg, and the cold carcass weight (CCW) – 13.43 kg, while chilling losses were 1.58%. The dressing out was very good in both estimation methods – 50.00% (according to BSS 4348-78) and 47.54% (according to Simela et al., 2011). The kidneys and kidney fat weighed 0.70 kg (5.18% from the CCW), and all internal fats had a total weight 0.86 kg and were 6.38% from the CCW. There were no separable subcutaneous fats on the carcasses.
According to the linear carcass measurements, the average carcass length was 53.50 сm, the chest width – 15.25 cm, and the carcass compactness index – 0.251. The leg length and leg large circumference had almost identical values – 34.50 сm and 34.12 сm, and the leg compactness index was 0.989. In the retail cuts of the cold carcasses made according BSS 4348-78 was discovered that the shoulder had biggest percentage of the CCW– 40.80%. The percentages of the other parts of the carcass are respectively 32.46% for the leg, 12.67% for the cutlet, 7.74% for the neck, and 6.33% for the flank. The best meat:bone ratio was for the cutlet – 3.8:1, and lowest – for the leg 2.9:1. The neck and shoulder had similar values – around 3:1. The meat:bone ratio for the entire carcass was 3.1:1.