Variation of Physical Components of Turkey Carcasses as Influenced by Sex, Age and Strain

DEVELOPMENT of new turkey products from tissues removed from the carcass has increased greatly during the past five years. Consequently, information dealing with the physical components of the carcass and factors which influence them is being sought for present day conditions. Differences in yield of edible portions of the carcass have been noted for some time. Harshaw et al. (1943) reported difference in edible yield among varieties of turkey at a common age of 28 to 30 weeks. Similar variety differences were reported by Sweet et al. (1954) on raw yield, but cooked yields showed no difference. Swickard and Harkin (1954) studied edible cooked yield of the Beltsville Small White with age and sex as variables. They reported higher raw carcass yields for the older birds but found no cooked weight yield differences based on percent of ready-to-cook weight at ages of 14,16 and 26 weeks. An evaluation of edible . . .