A STANDARD METHOD FOR JOINTING CAMEL CARCASSES WITH REFERENCE TO THE EFFECT OF SLAUGHTER AGE ON CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS IN NAJDI CAMELS. I. WHOLESALE CUT WEIGHT

A procedure to standardize camel carcass fabrication is proposed. This includes a definitive method of jointing the carcass into wholesale neck, shoulder, brisket, rib, plate, loin, flank, rump and leg cuts. Carcass cutout data were collected from the right sides of 21 Najdi male camels averaging 8, 16 and 26 months of age in order to determine the influence of age on the weight of each wholesale cut. The weight of body, empty body, hot carcass, cold carcass, hump fat, kidney, pelvic and heart fat (KPH) and each wholesale cut increased (p < .01) with age. Except for percent shrinkage and wholesale rump weight, all studied traits increased (p < .01) linearly as the age increased. This change was most pronounced in wholesale flank and plate cuts, increasing by 4.2 and 3.4 times, respectively, while the rump and shoulder cuts changed the least, increasing by 1.8 and 1.9 times, respectively. Allometric growth coefficients indicated that as the camel grew, the weight of rib, brisket, plate and flank cuts increased relatively more rapidly than did cold carcass or empty body weight and that the weight of wholesale shoulder, neck, leg and rump increased less rapidly than did cold carcass or empty body weight.