Estimation of the lean meat content of pig carcasses using the measurement of different cuts

In 1996, a sample of 320 carcasses, which are representative of the French pig population for both sex and genotype, were butchered according to a normalised Dutch procedure (DHN) and dissected according to the new EU reference method. After the elimination of 20 outliers and 7 data which wrongly influenced the estimation, the following equation predicting the lean meat content (TVM) of the carcass was calculated from the proportions of each joint in the carcass :TVM = 5.684 + 1.197 % ham + 1.076 % loin - 1.059 % backfatRSD =1.39 adjusted R2 = 0.82Joint weights are expressed as a percentage of the weight of the half-carcass (DREC), defined as follows : DREC = Ham + Shoulder + Belly (without diaphragm) + Loin (without diaphragm) + Backfat + half Head (with brain and tongue)Predictors have been adapted to the new carcass dressing procedure before weighing (absence of flare fat, kidneys and diaphragm) which was introduced in June 1997 in French slaughterhouses.This equation has been used since the 1st September, 1997 in the centres for performance testing in the evaluation of slaughtered siblings as well as for terminal crosses. Another prediction equation for TVM was calculated from the proportions of DHN joints in the old carcass dressing system. Both equations can be used by researchers who experiment to achieve better accuracy for predicting TVM than that obtained at grading.