I decided that unknown cows were the enemy of progress, hence that first title, “Know Thy Cows.” Most of mine were crossbreds in the late 1990s and about half were black, but ID was tenuous at best.
The Kansas Angus Association is working with Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) to better reward members or their customers as they learn more about carcass merit in their herds, or at least five representative spring-born steers. The 2011 Carcass Data Project (CDP) $5-per-head enrollment deadline of Dec. 15 allows participants couple of weeks for Dec. 28-30 delivery to the CAB-licensed McPherson County Feeders, near Marquette, Kan.
Opportunities hide within every challenge, but beef producers can find them through analysis and planning. That was part of the take-home message at the Feeding Quality Forums, Nov. 10 in South Sioux City, Neb., and Nov. 12 in Garden City, Kan.
When times are lean, sales of luxury items are typically the first to fall off. However, when it comes to beef, it appears that consumer demand for the higher quality and pricier Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand held up better than that for USDA Choice or lower grade beef.
An industry that aims to be consumer driven must first identify its drivers. That’s why “Defining Consumers – Emerging Expectations” was part of the Pfizer-sponsored Cattlemen’s College at the winter National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) meeting in Phoenix, Ariz.
The entire industry will have to work together to provide consumers with the beef they expect. Tenderness, flavor and juiciness are signs of strong marbling–giving producers a target they must weigh the many different management options that impact marbling.
“I always thought the marbling went in at the end, and the further you get the implant away from harvest, the better effect on grade,” Robbi Pritchard said. He shred some of the earlier theories about cattle growth curves, fat deposition and the effect of implants.
Study results from the 1999 “Characterization of Certified Angus Beef Steaks from the Round, Loin and Chuck” show that marbling is more highly related to tenderness of middle meats than it is to that of the end meats. That means the key to better-eating beef is in moving up the quality grade scale.
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