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A carcass contest promotes the production of beef, swine, and lambs that yield superior carcasses. The contest judge uses carcass quality (how good the carcass is) and yield (how much meat is in the carcass) grades to identify superior carcasses. "Carcass quality components" consist of carcass age and marbling (flecks of fat in the ribeye). Whereas "carcass yield components" consist of carcass weight, ribeye area, fat thickness, and other factors that are species specific. Carcass contests do not take into account important live animal characteristics such as structural soundness. Therefore animals that place high in carcass contests may or may not be the most desirable animals overall. Genetics, breeding, selection, nutrition and management can affect both carcass and live animal characteristics. Carcass information can help identify practices that result in high performing animals producing superior carcasses.
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