RELATIONSHIP OF SEX, AGE, AND BODY-WEIGHT TO BROILER CARCASS YIELD AND OFFAL PRODUCTION

Male and female broilers (feather-sexable strain) at 28, 35, 42, and 4 9 days of age were utilized to determine the effect of sex, age, and B W on yield of various offal and edible carcass components. Individual bird BW ranged from 756 to 2,970 g. During processing, weight of blood , feathers, head, neck, feet, preen gland, heart, fiver, gizzard, gast rointestinal tract, fat pad, hind half (legs, thighs, and saddle), win gs, Pectoralis major, breast skin, Pectoralis minor, back with lungs, rib cage, water uptake, and whole dressed carcass were determined. Reg ression analyses were used to generate equations describing the relati onship between carcass components and BW for each sex and with the sex es combined. The data were also subjected to analysis of variance to d etermine age and sex effects on an absolute weight and percentage of l ive BW basis. Yields of body components changed with increasing age an d BW. In general the percentage of edible components increased, and th e percentage of offal decreased with increasing age and BW. When expre ssed on a percentage of live BW basis, significant sex effects existed for feathers, head, neck, feet, heart, liver, fat pad, hind half, bre ast skin, and Pectoralis minor. Thus, the yield of offal components va ry more by sex than does yield of edible carcass components.