Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
During recent years increasing use has been made of carcass measurements to assess differences in the conformation, growth rates and carcass quality of bacon pigs. The measurements usually taken are: (a) thickness of back fat at one or more points, (b) thickness of flank at one or more points, and (c) the length of the carcass. Whilst at present there is fairly general agreement as to where the back-fat and flank measurements should be taken, the same agreement is not found in the case of carcass length.