Evaluation of Ultrasound for Prediction of Carcass Meat Yield and Meat Quality in Korean Native Cattle (Hanwoo)

It is concluded that the decision tree method can easily predict yield grade and is also useful for increasing prediction accuracy rate.

Abstract

Three hundred thirty five progeny testing steers of Korean beef cattle were evaluated ultrasonically for back fat thickness (BFT), longissimus muscle area (LMA) and intramuscular fat (IF) before slaughter.Class measurements associated with the Korean yield grade and quality grade were also obtained.Residual standard deviation between ultrasonic estimates and carcass measurements of BFT, LMA were 1.49 mm and 0.96 cm 2 .The linear correlation coefficients (p<0.01) between ultrasonic estimates and carcass measurements of BFT, LMA and IF were 0.75, 0.57 and 0.67, respectively.Results for improving predictions of yield grade by four methods-the Korean yield grade index equation, fat depth alone, regression and decision tree methods were 75.4%, 79.6%, 64.3% and 81.4%, respectively.We conclude that the decision tree method can easily predict yield grade and is also useful for increasing prediction accuracy rate.(