Effects of estimation accuracy on potential payment premiums for superior beef carcasses

摘要

Abstract Knowledge of saleable meat yield (SMY%) at the time of carcass classification enables payments to be made on the basis of carcass saleable meat content. This study determined the extent to which improved accuracy of estimating SMY% enabled larger premiums to be paid for better yielding carcasses. A population of 1000 carcasses was simulated for true SMY% values (275 kg carcass weight; mean SMY% of 66 with a standard deviation of 3.0) as well as estimated SMY% values when accuracies in terms of residual standard deviation (RSDs) ranged from 0 to 2.5. A consequence of the requirement that estimates of SMY% be unbiased was that variability of the estimates was less than that of the true SMY% when estimation was imperfect. Premiums that could be paid to the top 5% of carcasses relative to the average increased by 5.8, 9.2, and 9.7 c kg?1 as the RSD decreased from 2.5 to 1.0 for five‐step, eight‐step, and smooth payment systems, respectively. The rate at which potential premiums increased with decreas...