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Carcass Show yields quality
Published 6/1/2009 in Beef Empire Days-Industry
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
The top steer chosen in the Beef Empire Days Carcass Show was No. 109, a steer from Rocking L Feeders and owned by 7 Ranch.
The top heifer was No. 527, a heifer from 77 Feedyard and owned by Schurrtop Angus & Charolais.
There is prize money and awards to be handed out, but ultimately, the animals, along with the other 170-some head of cattle that go through the live and carcass shows then end up at Tyson Fresh Meats, going to some meat buyer and winding up on somebody's dinner plate, according to Carcass Show Chairman Gale Seibert.
And, according to Seibert, Carcass Judge Tom Carr and Live Judge Marcine Moldenhauer, both shows saw a good number of quality cattle — the kind consumers would want on their dinner plates.
Seibert said one of the differences in this year's Carcass Show was that there were fewer dark-cutters, or cattle whose meat, once harvested, is darker than desired because of, among other factors, stress put on the animal.
Dark-cutters can occur after the animals arrive at the Live Show and are run through alleys, chutes and into pens and then off to Tyson. The animal shows its reaction to stress through the color of its meat, Seibert said. And hotter temperatures can affect the animal.
This year, though, Seibert saw fewer dark-cutters in the bunch of carcasses that were on display to the public Saturday night at Tyson.
Wednesday, when the Live Show was held, was a cooler day, Seibert said, and the show started later, which meant the cattle were run through the chute only once.
The Carcass Show is just another step in the cycle of producers, ranchers and feeders being able to judge both the live animal and carcass and then see how the two compare. The original concept of Beef Empire Days, Seibert said, was to come up with an educational program to help packers, buyers, ranchers and others see the live animal and then what the animal amounts to once stripped of its hide and in a cooler.
Just because the animal looks good with the hide on, Seibert said, "he can be a sorry son-of-a-gun" in the cooler. And if producers can sell carcasses of a higher value and quality, they can make more money, he said.
There were several cattle that graded in the prime range and were very trim, with little back fat, Seibert said, adding there were several cattle whose quality "really knocked your socks off." Plus, he said, there were few in the poor quality or below-select range -- cattle that muscled but had no marbling (which provides some of the juiciness, flavor and tenderness in the meat), no fat, grease or the palatability the consumer needs.
Seibert and Carr stood in the cooler at Tyson on Saturday night, speaking with the public and those from the cattle industry as the carcasses hung in the cooled temperature.
Moldenhauer said during Saturday night's BED Awards Banquet that when she used to work at Cargill in Dodge City, she'd sometimes sneak over for BED events and try her hand at judging some of the animals.
And while everyone in the room, she said, is a cowboy or cowgirl at heart and loves judging the live animal, they're all here to produce beef that's desired and eventually will end up on a dinner table.
Moldenhauer said she looked hard during the Live Show for cattle that she felt would end up being the beef consumer's desire, as well as beef that the consumer not only wants but will keep coming back for.
"We are the preference in the center of the plate," she said of beef, adding that those in the room can't lose sight of that fact.
And, for the most part, Moldenhauer said, the carcasses were indicative of what she saw in the Live Show from a quality standpoint. Nine of Moldenhauer's top 25 live heifers were in the top 25 carcasses. She didn't fare as well with steers, with three or so in both the top 25 live and carcass — but it was a tough pick.
The animals were grouped closer this year, she said, citing advanced technology and cattle management practices as one of the reasons for the animals being closer in quality and appearance to one another.
America has "a love affair with beef," Moldenhauer said, and the meat is seen as American heritage and part of what the country was built on from a protein standpoint. And every decision the feeder and producer makes toward the cattle needs to be with the end in mind, she said, that someone's going to eat that piece of meat and that the consumer needs to be satisfied with the quality and value for what they bought.
And then, she said, the meat needs to push the consumer to want to buy more at a higher price, or a growing demand.
"And that's what we have to have," she said.
As Moldenhauer judged during the Live Show, Carr also was taking notes on the live animal, trying to correlate the live to what the carcass would end up like.
Of the carcasses, Carr said, nearly 70 percent of the heifers were rated choice and prime, with 70 percent having a yield grade of 1 and 2. About 65 percent of the steers graded prime and choice, and 60 percent had a yield grade of 1 and 2.
Overall, that's very good, an excellent percentage, Carr said.
"It sets a high watermark for the industry," he said.
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