INFLUENCE OF WHOLESALE LAMB MARKETING OPTIONS AND MERCHANDISING STYLES ON RETAIL YIELD AND FABRICATION TIME

Lamb carcasses (n=94) from five packing plants, selected to vary in we ight class and fat thickness, were used to determine retail yield and labor requirements of wholesale lamb fabrication. Carcasses were allot ted randomly according to weight class to be fabricated as whole carca sses (n=20), three-piece boxes (n=22), or subprimals (n=52). Processin g times (seconds) were recorded and wholesale and retail weights (kilo grams) were obtained to calculate retail yield. Subprimals were fabric ated into bone-in retail cuts or boneless or semi-boneless retail cuts . Retail yield for subprimal lamb legs decreased from 85.3+/-.6% for b one-in to 68.0+/-.7% for a completely boneless retail product. Corresp ondingly, processing times increased from 126.1+/-5.4 s to 542.0+/-19. 2 s for bone-in and boneless legs, respectively. For all subprimals, r etail yield percentage tended to decrease and total processing time in crease as cuts were fabricated to boneless or semi-boneless end points compared with a bone-in end point. Percentage retail yield did not di ffer (P >.05) among whole carcass, three-piece box, and subprimal mark eting methods. Total processing time was shorter for subprimals (P <.0 5) than for the other two marketing methods.