Carcass and non-carcass characteristics of Bunaji (White Fulani) cattle

Offal parts and carcass component data from 40 Bunaji bulls bought from open market and culled from the herds were slaughtered for beef at the meat laboratory of the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) were used to determine the carcass components and Offal yield of bunaji cattle. Dressing percentages of the caule ranges between 53.05±1.44 and 51.03±0.23 for the bulls and cows respectively. The differences were not significant (P>0.05). The bulls have significantly (P<0.05) heavier live weight, carcass weight, quantity of beef and hump muscles than cows. On the average the bulls gave 119.03±3.22kg of beef compared to 110.77±7.22kg of boneless beef produced by the cows. This value represented about 65.55±0.51 and 63.8±1.14% of the carcass weight of the bulls and cows respectively. The bulls have significantly (p<0.05) heavier external offal (54.75±1.72kg) than the cows (43.38±2.44kg). These represented about 17.28±0.23 and 15.28±0.71% of the live weight of the bulls and cow's respectively. The total internal offal (liver, kidney, heart, spleen, lungs, trachea, stomach and intestines) are similar (P<0.05) between the bulls and cows and represented about 5.25±0.15 and 6.75±0.34% of the carcass weight of the bulls and cows respectively. The results of this study show that the File Fulani cattle compared favorably with other African breeds in terms of carcass and non-carcass output. However, a larger proportion of the weight is in the external offal that are nutritionally of low value.