title: Influence of wholesale lamb marketing options and merchandising styles on retail yield and fabrication time.
abstract: Lamb carcasses (n = 94) from five packing plants, selected to vary in weight class and fat thickness, were used to determine retail yield and labor requirements of wholesale lamb fabrication. Carcasses were allotted randomly according to weight class to be fabricated as whole carcasses (n = 20), three-piece boxes (n = 22), or subprimals (n = 52). Processing times (seconds) were recorded and wholesale and retail weights (kilograms) were obtained to calculate retail yield. Subprimals were fabricated into bone-in retail cuts or boneless or semi-boneless retail cuts. Retail yield for subprimal lamb legs decreased from 85.3 +/- .6% for bone-in to 68.0 +/- .7% for a completely boneless retail product. Correspondingly, 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, retail yield percentage tended to decrease and total processing time increase as cuts were fabricated to boneless or semi-boneless end points compared with a bone-in end point. Percentage retail yield did not differ (P > .05) among whole carcass, three-piece box, and subprimal marketing methods. Total processing time was shorter for subprimals (P < .05) than for the other two marketing methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-2471, USA.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lorenzen
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Dockerty
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Savell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005525:Food-Processing Industry / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D007256:Information Systems; D008460:Meat / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D012756:Sheep; D012984:Software; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D016885:United States Department of Agriculture