A number of research works have shown the inferiority of the carcass and of the meat of cows mainly of cull cows which are led to slaughter very old and/ or with an unsuitable finishing. This work was aimed to establish among the cows slaughtered in the town of Lavras - Mg the most frequent body condition during the period of March to July and to evaluate the relationship existing between body condition and carcass yield and the yield of some cuts of the rear. The survey was conducted in the slaughterhouse of the town of Lavras - MG and divided into two phases, thus comprehended : phase 1 (1st to 31st of March 2001) determined that 53.41% of the total of animals slaughtered in the period were females and that the body condition scores (BCS) more frequent among them were 3, 4 and 5. In phase 2 (15th April to 15th July 2001) were utilized 140 females viz. 42 cows of BCS 3, 59 females of BCS 4 and 39 of BCS 5. In each sore the cows were ranked into three genetic groups: zebu- crossed, Holstein- crossed and crossbred. In the slaughterhouse before slaughter the cows were weighted classified as to body condition and genetic group and photographed for further classification by other referees. The evaluated parameters were: HCY, kidney and pelvic fat weight LEA, PFT and weight of the cuts (striploin, whole rump and tenderloin). The body condition score (BCS) influenced the HCW, PFT kidney and pelvic weight and the weight of the whole rump in the three genetic groups. For the LEA and weight of the tenderloin only the effect of the BCS on the zebu-crossed cows was found, striploin weight was not affected by the BCS. The zebu-crossed cows presented a greater HCY and PFT but the largest LEA was observed among the Holstein cows. The kidney and pelvic fat and the weights of the cuts (striploin, rump and tenderloin) did not range among the genetic groups. From the results obtained, one can conclude that the cows slaughtered in the period presented poor body condition and that this influenced the carcass yield characteristics.
Carcass; body condition score; culling cows
