Pigs to Pork
SELECTION
Cooperative Extension Service PURDUE UNIVERSITY Lafayette, Indiana
how to make backfat determinations
K.J. Drewry, Animal Sciences Department INTRODUCTION
AS-376 March 1971
Several traits are considered economically important when measuring the ’’profitability" of swine. Profitable swine are those which will return the most to all people associated with the industry. The ultimate goal should be production of quality pork carcasses which meet the desire of the consumer.
The justification for deciding which traits to measure in the live hog depends upon the heritability of the trait (measure of differences due to genetics) and the relative economic importance of the trait.
which will be available for marketing, packer and retail personnel to merchandise. What are the traits which affect the economics of these swine related industries as well as the producer? The traits are: muscularity, prolificacy, growth rate, feed conversion, struc tural soundness, and backfat. These traits range from low (prolificacy) to medium (growth-rate, muscularity, feed conversion, structural soundness and backfat) in heritability. The relative economic importance of the traits vary according to the section of the swine industry in question.
The swine producer, as well as the seed-	This publication will deal only with back-
stock supplier for the producer, determine fat determinations in live hogs and its relathe kinds of hogs and resulting carcasses	tionship to the goal of producing quality pork
carcasses in volume.
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Table 1. Average carcass measurements for various backfat classes —
a/ Indiana Swine Evaluation Station Data - 1957 to 1969. b/ Includes trimmed hams and loins as % of chilled carcass.