Physical Measurements of Carcass Quality in Roasters

Amount of Breast Meat and Live and Dressed Grades in Relation to Body Measurements in 12-Week Old Purebred and Crossbred Chickens

“…This agrees with the observations made by Jaap (1938a) and Dolecek, Wilson, and Poley (1941). than the progeny from either of the purebreds.…”

“…Jaap (1938a) obtained poor agreement between commercial grading and his fleshing index. Scott (1940) and Dolecek et al (1941) obtained similar results. Hoffman (1943) raised 100 White Plymouth Rock and 100 White CornishX White Plymouth Rock crossbreds to 14 weeks of age at which time they were graded into AA, A, B, and C grades on the basis of fleshing and body conformation.…”

“…It was found that the calculated figures for the breast angles of different birds very closely approximate the grading rating for conformation of breast. Dolecek, Wilson, and Poley (1941) obtained a significant correlation between alignment grade and the fleshing index developed by Poley et al (1940) in Rhode Island Red cockerels. Jaap (1938a) obtained poor agreement between commercial grading and his fleshing index.…”

“…Correlations of -0.10 and -0.33 were obtained by Dolecek, Wilson, and Poley (1941) between the weight of light meat and total edible meat, respectively, and shank length divided by the cube root of body weight suggested by Jaap as an index of fleshing. This agrees with the observations of Scott (1940), who stated that he was unable to find a positive correlation between meat measurements de-scribing full fleshing in roasters and the "fleshing index" recommended by Jaap.…”

Measuring Strain Differences in the Conformation of Turkeys

“…inches above the point of the keel. Dolecek, Wilson, and Poley (1941), working with domestic fowl, used measurements of breast width to calculate an alignment grade. Gutteridge and O'Neil (1942) have used an elaborate instrument for measuring breast angle.…”