02/24/05 Flabby cattle part one

Flabby Cattle I Recent reports indicate beef cattle are losing muscle. I'm Jeff Keane and I'll discuss some of the data right after this. According to an article by Wes Ishmael in BEEF magazine U.S. fed cattle are losing muscle. That sounds like someone I see in the mirror everyday. Author Ishmael sites Duane Wulf, professor of meat sciences at South Dakota State University and his analysis of three National Beef Quality Audits and annual USDA data. Muscle is what cattlemen sell. More muscle increases the percentage of retail cuts or cutability of a carcass. Rib eye size is an indicator of muscling and rib eye size at a given carcass weight helps to determine USDA yield grades. A lower yield grade of 1 or 2 is more desirable than a yield grade of 4, which is discounted, as being too fat or having a too small rib eye area. Professor Wulf's study shows rib eye sizes have declined in carcass quality audits since 1991. Annual USDA data also shows yield grades 1 and 2 have slipped from 57.5% in 2000 to 52.7% in 2004, while yield grade 4 beef has increased from 2% to 5.1%. This is important since yield grade 1 and 2 carcasses bring more dollars per hundredweight than carcasses with less desirable yield grades. But just adding muscle mass to produce a more profitable carcass is not as easy as it might seem and I'll discuss that tomorrow. I'm Jeff Keane. BEEF February 2005