Agribusiness : How to calculate dressing percentage in slaughtered cattle.

 Cattle business is no doubt profitable  but you can actually calculate the profit if you track the numbers, yes! do the math.

  Cattle business can be broadly divided into:1) sale of live animals. 2) buy the animal, fatten and sell. 3) buy, slaughter and sell. 

 How do you calculate the meat to expect from the carcass ? many people believe that the live weight of the animal is what to expect when animal is slaughtered. A lot of people  are often surprised at quantity of meat after processing because dressing percentage is different from live weight.

  The concept of dressing percentage is key to profit calculation in cattle business, this is the math critical to business evaluation.

  What is dressing percentage and how do you do the math?  The dressing percentage is the portion of the live weight that results in hot carcass weight.

 What is the hot carcass weight? this is the weight of the unchilled carcass after the head,internal organs and hides have been removed. The hot carcass weight for cattle is approximately about  60-64% of the live animal weight. The hot carcass weight can vary from one animal to another depending on some factors.

 The dressing percentage =  hot carcass weight / live weight X 100.

 If an animal weighs 300 kg, working with 62.5% as hot carcass weight means the dressing percentage will be: 187.5 /300 X 100=  62.5. 

The dressing percentage used in the meat industry  does not equate to amount of beef that will be available for sale because the carcass will be divided into various meat cuts.

 The whole animal is cut into halves and separated into front and hind quarters. These quarters are separated into primal cuts ,this is referred to as breaking down the  carcass. The  amount of beef available can be affected by amount of fat in carcass which will be trimmed off or the size /weight of bone because bone can weigh more. 

The more bone is left in the  beef cut the higher the yield percentage but when retail cuts are boneless then the percentage yield will be lower.

   This calculation is a template to determine profit whether you are supplying beef using different cuts or you are selling retail.

 

Azolla as a feed ingredient in broiler ration.

Azolla as a feed ingredient in broiler ration. A study was carried out to determine the viability of adding Azolla to broiler diet on performance and cost analysis.

 The study reported in International Journal of Poultry Science 1: 29-34, 2002 ,shows that a 5% inclusion rate of Azolla in broiler ration is viable both for performance and cost implication. 

 The experiment was conducted with 120 seven days old Vencobb commercial broiler chicks and continued up to 42 days of age to determine the feasibility of Azolla as a feed ingredient in broiler ration. The broilers are randomly allotted to four dietary treatments; T (control diet without Azolla meal), T (diet with 5% Azolla meal), T (diet with 10% Azolla 1 2 3 meal) and T (diet with 15% Azolla meal) diets replacing sesame meal by Azolla meal. The composition of Azolla meal contained 4 25.78% crude protein, 15.71% crude fibre, 3.47% ether extract, 15.76% ash and 30.08% nitrogen free extract on the air-dry basis. Live weight, production number and protein efficiency were (P< 0.01) significantly improved at the level off 5% Azolla meal in broiler ration. Feed conversion ratio and energy efficiency were significantly (P< 0.01) improved in diet with 5% Azolla meal and control diet. 

The study concluded that the use of up to 5% Azolla meal in a broiler ration may help improve performance and this inclusion rate in a broiler diet is also determined as a safe level. Azolla meal had no deleterious effect on the palatability of broiler diets.

 A farmer using Azolla shares her experience; farmer from sunshine chickens harvest a lot of Azolla to feed the three (3) batches of Sunshine Chicken they have in the farm. They are fed pails and pails of it daily..

 All ages eat azolla ,not limited to broilers as layers also feed on Azolla with bigger eggs as an advantage. Continue