Reading a kill sheet

How to interpret that feedback sheet from the abattoir

By Alison Bates

The degree of muscling or positively affects the dressing percentage and yield of a carcase. It can take an expert eye to distinguish between muscle and fat in live cattle.

You have sent some animals to the abattoir and in return they have sent you some money and a Producer Feedback report.

It’s obvious what some of the information means. Some of it is more difficult to understand. How do you interpret what it all means? The first place you can look is the Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) website. There is information here embedded within the More Beef from Pastures program, but if you just want to understand the numbers in your Feedback report you will have to wade through a lot of valuable context to get there. A Google search for Form 3.7.1 Producer Feedback Reports will get you to a useful glossary quickly. Although the definitions are standard, the details in the Producer Feedback report will vary between Abattoirs. A standard report for an animal you’ve sent for slaughter will have less detail than the sort of report that would be produced for a carcase competition. As there is variation in reporting between different abattoirs. Let’s start with a very basic report. The first carcase, a bull, had a Hot Weight of 375.9 kilograms. The Hot Weight is also known as Hot Standard Carcase Weight (HSCW). This is the weight of the carcase after the head, organs and hide etc. have been removed but before the carcase has been chilled. Where a single value is given the HSCW is calculated from the side assessed by an MSA (Meat Standards Australia) Grader. The two sides may not weigh the same and in some reports a weight is given for each side. The sex of the animal B (Bull) F(Female) S(Steer) is indicated in the next column. Next, we see the muscle shape score which represents the assessment of the muscling of the animal.

The grade used for this score runs from A (heavily muscled) through to E (Lightly muscled). The degree of muscling or positively affects the dressing percentage and yield of a carcase. It can take an expert eye to distinguish between muscle and fat in live cattle. The dentition (Dent or DNT) indicates the number of permanent incisors which have erupted as an indication of age. The age at which permanent incisors erupt can vary depending on the breed and nutrition of the cattle, but a rough indication would have two permanent incisors at around 18 months of age, four at 24-36 months, six at 30-42 months and eight permanent incisors, as shown in the example about indicates the animals are over three years old. Ossification is a better indication of the maturity of an animal and thus of the impact of age on the eating quality of a carcase but is often not reported in a basic Kill Sheet. Ossification (Oss) is scored from 100-590 and measures the cartilage which has changed to bone in the spine from the tail forward. A higher score indicates a better quality for eating. Dentition remains as a key reporting characteristic as it is required data by many countries for export. The fat depth measurement is taken at the P8 rump site which is located between the hip and the tail.

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Drawing an imaginary line forward from the pin bone and down from the high point (high sacral vertebrae) of the rump will give you an idea of the location. A fat depth of less than 3mm may impact the eating quality of the meat.The Cents per Kilogram of Hot Weight gives you the rate you are being paid for your animal. This amount will vary with supply and demand, from company to company and on a range of other identifiable factors. You can contact a few local abattoirs before you consign an animal to compare the price they are offering at the most basic level. Processors also issue pricing grids which outline their requirements and give prices for carcases which meet their specifications.You might use these grids to decide which of your animals you will sell to a processor and which you will keep until they are closer to meeting the desired grid specifications. A much larger range of grading assessments are carried out on carcases to meet the grid specifications for the various markets a processer may be supplying, for example meat colour, fat colour, rib fat, marbling, pH and eye muscle area.

For more detailed information on MSA (Meat Standards Australia), the MLA website (www.mla.com.au) is a great place to start.

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