Yield and carcass characteristics of improved Boer and Australian feral goats slaughtered at 30 kg live weight

Abstract

With the objective of evaluating the yield and carcass characteristics of full blood Improved Boer (B) and feral (F) goats, a total of 20 male kids that grazed on pastures, and supplemented with grassy lucerne hay and ad libitum weaner goat pellets (12.3 MJ ME and 18 % CP per kg DM) were slaughtered at 30 kg live weight. At the start of the experiment six-month old kids of each breed were either left entire (E) or castrated (C) using elastrator rings. BE and BC reached 30 kg live weight significantly at younger ages than FE and FC (256, 258, 326 and 350 days, respectively). Carcasses from BC kids had significantly higher empty bodyweights, carcass weights and dressing percentages than carcasses from BE goats. These differences were not detected for feral bucks. Overall, goat carcasses in this trial contained 70.5% muscle, 9.5% dissectible fat and 17.6% bone. Carcasses of Boer goats, both entire and castrated, had higher carcass conformation scores than those of feral carcasses. Breed and castrationhad no significant effect on the proportion of muscle. More fat was stored between muscles (intermuscular fat) than between the muscles and the skin (subcutaneous fat). BE carcasses had significantly lower total dissectible fat and higher bone proportion than other groups. The higher proportion of bone in BE carcasses resulted in lower muscle to bone ratio.