Relationships of five body measurements to slaughter grade, carcass grade, and dressing percentage in milking shorthorn steers.

I N connection with the record of performance work carried out at the U.S.D.A. Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland, various body measurements of each steer were taken at a live weight of approximately 900 pounds. This work was undertaken to determine whether any association existed between body measurements and the slaughter grade, carcass grade, and dressing percentage of the steers. If such relationships exist they would be of practical value to the breeder in the selection of his stock. This study is based on the following measurements: height at withers, height at floor of chest, circumference of foreflank, width of shoulder, and length of body. In addition some consideration is given to the relationships between the performance characters mentioned above as well as average daily gain and efficiency of gain studied in a previous paper, Kohli et al. (1951). Black et al. (1938) in a study of 50 animals of beef, dual-purpose and dairy breeding, found that slaughter grade was a better measure of beef type than any ratio of measurements. Therefore, they suggest that measurements should not replace but should supplement reliable slaughter grades. Hankins et al. (1938) observed that the rate of gain does not have an important bearing on carcass grade, the correlation being 0.37. Feeder cattle grade and total gain had important and approximately equal influences on carcass grade. Lush (1932) found that the correlations between measurements of feeder steers and their subsequent gains and dressing percentage and the values of dressed beef were low but statistically significant. He indicated that the most important measurements for high dressing percentage were a large heart girth in connection with a shallow chest, a wide loin and large flank girth, a