Dressing percentage and carcass characteristics of Bunaji bulls fattened on varying inclusion levels of groundnut haulms and maize offal

Abstract

Animal carcasses vary in composition through genetic, age and sex of animal, nutritional and environmental effects. Twenty Bunaji bulls with average live weights of 196±0.5 kg and aged between 2¹/₂ and 3 years were used for the trial. The bulls were divided to four groups of five animals balanced by weight with an animal as a replicate in a completely randomized design and were allocated to four dietary treatments consisting of 80: 20, 60: 40, 40: 60 and 20: 80% groundnut haulms: maize offal. Feed intake, live and carcass weights and weight of carcass components and offal were used to assess the carcass characteristics. Feed intake and final weight differed (P<0.05) significantly with the bulls on 40: 60 and 20: 80% groundnut haulms: maize offal inclusion levels having higher values of 7.49 and 7.57 kg/d and 276.60 and 279.60 kg against 6.93 and 7.16 kg/d and 242.40 and 252.60 kg/d for those on 80: 20 and 60: 40% inclusion levels, respectively. Similarly, feed conversion ratio was significantly (P<0.05) higher for the bulls on 40: 60 and 20:80% inclusion levels than those on 80: 20 and 60: 40% inclusion levels. The carcass components used were: empty carcass (kg), dressing percentage, weight of dissectible beef (kg), beef yield % of carcass weight, internal offal (liver, spleen, heart, kidney, empty stomach and intestine) and external offal (head, tail, legs and hide). Result also showed that there was significant (P<0.05) difference in all the carcass components, dressing percentage and weight of legs spleen, kidney and empty intestines between the treatments. However, no differences were observed for the weights of liver, heart, empty stomach, head and hide. It is concluded that higher proportion of maize offal in the diet influence most carcass components.

Keywords: Dressing percentage, Carcass characteristics, Bunaji bulls, groundnut haulms and maize offal