摘要：Trend of recovery of the Croatian beef production in recent years and potential to renew the export of beef to some traditional European markets have actualised researches in young cattle (baby beef) – the most important export category. In this work, the shares of main cuts and tissues (muscle, fat, bones and connective tissue) in the carcasses of young Simmental cattle produced for the Italian market were analysed. With this aim the dissection of 26 carcass halves of average weight of 129.3 kg were carried out. The average share of cuts of the 1st category (leg) in the carcass was 30.5%, of the 2nd category (back and shoulder) 23.1% and of the 3rd category (upper subshoulder, lower sub-shoulder, ribs, breast, neck, belly, front and hind shank) 44.4% respectively. By cut tissue dissection, the greatest variability was found for share of fat and connective tissue and the lowest for share of muscle and bones. The average share of muscle tissue was 76.1% in the leg and 70.2% and 59.2% in the carcass parts of the 2nd category and 3rd category, respectively. The average share of fat tissue and bones in the leg was 5.2% and 13.3%, in the carcass cuts of the 2nd category it was 7.2% and 17.4%, and in the carcass cuts of the 3rd category it was 12.5% and 21.8%, respectively. The average share of connective tissue in carcass parts of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd category was 5.4%, 5.1% and 6.5%, respectively. The mean shares of muscle, fat, connective tissue and bones in the carcass halves were 68.8%, 9.1%, 5.9% and 16.3%, respectively.
