Marbling

Jason Ahola a professor at Colorado State University and specializes in beef research. I had a chance to listen to him as he talked about marbling. Is your toe okay for tennis tonight? “I explored a vast amount of information related to what influences marbling on an animal and only the things that might happen around the time of weaning. That's about 30 days before weaning and 30 days after weaning. The focus was anything from management to genetics to other aspects. What is any possible thing that might influence how an animal marbles when it is slaughtered but only those things that can be altered in that window right around the time of weaning. We found that there are a few things that have very strong connections. There are other things that have indirect influences or they haven’t yet been shown to have an effect. Probably one of the more direct things that people have known about forever is castrating an animal and creating a steer rather than a bull and that is often done around the time of weaning or a little before. Also castrating them at a lighter weight can improve marbling, tenderness and palatability, especially in the higher marbling breeds such as Angus and Holstein.” I learned that a high grain diet after meeting was also an important influence.