On the rail Once those cattle reach a
packing plant, it’s the moment of truth. Will they be Prime, Choice or Select? Will they qualify for a branded beef program? This is where marbling mat-
ters and small differences have big impacts on whether a steer or heifer makes money. Hale says grading is how we
group carcasses into similar types. “As you looked at some of
Jason Banta says the VAC 45 program has become the industry standard. “That pro- gram enhances the immune system of those calves. It gets them over that stressful weaning event while they’re still on the ranch where they can handle it better.
The dollars are in the balance. Banta says that feedlots work daily with their con-
sulting veterinarians to maintain the best health of all their cattle and to make sure they have the best health management protocols in place. Feedlot cattle will eat a carefully mixed ration 2
or 3 times per day and have access to unlimited wa- ter. Banta says they’ll be eating 25 to 30 pounds of grain per day. While feedlots strive to get quality-based premi-
ums, average daily gain is still where the most money is made, Hale says. “One day, Jason Banta and some of the other beef
cattle specialists pulled me aside and said, ‘Look, this meat stuff is where you belong,’” Hale says. “The thing is, carcass quality is important and I love the emphasis on it. Daily gain is more important to a feeder’s bottom line, however. In fact, through all of the data I’ve done all of these years, I would put feed- lot performance at about two-thirds to three-quarters of the value of a calf.” That means genotype and phenotype are signifi -
cant, but calf health and management could be the most critical.
84 The Cattleman June 2016
those cattle [on the slide] you probably saw some that looked kind of fat and some that looked kind of thin, some looked mus- cular,” Hale says. “Even in just those 5 that we looked at, there’s a lot of variation. “They were all fed together,
harvested together, they spent their life together. That is pretty typical. Even if that was a panel of 40 or 100 head, you’re going to have those that lack and those
that exceed. You’re going to have those that are aver- age. But through grading, we can take the wide array of different types of cattle and bring them into similar types of groups.” Hale says special instruments help graders capture
information that determines quality and yield grade — both of which affect a carcass’ worth. “Quality grade is an estimate of how good the meat’s
going to taste,” Hale says. “Tenderness, juiciness and fl avor — that’s what we want to know with quality grade.” “Yield grade, on the other hand, says what percent
of that animal is going to be sellable and what percent is fat or bone I have to throw away. There are 5 yield grades; 1 is the best and 5 is the worst.” The dollars are in the balance. Hale explains that
a good (Prime or Choice) carcass requiring a lot of trim will get both premiums and discounts. The goal is cattle that fi nish with lots of intramuscular fat, or marbling, but without too much external fat that stays on the packinghouse fl oor. Want to go through a full-length Beef 706 course? Get more details at
meat.tamu.edu/extension/beef-706.
See more at
cattleraisersconvention.com thecattlemanmagazine.com
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