Effort to Find Ways of Increasing Value of Cow Meat Deemed a Success

A program to increase the value of cow meat by focusing on previously underutilized muscles was among the Beef Checkoff Program’s most successful 2002 campaigns, according to an evaluation of the year’s programs by the Joint Evaluation Committee.

The “Cow Muscle Profiling” project, which was a follow-up to successful muscle research on beef steers and heifers, should help improve the value of carcasses from both beef and dairy cattle.  It catalogs information about 21 potentially valuable cow muscles so processors can make informed decisions and increase the value throughout the cow beef production system. 

“Until this study was completed, little was known about the muscles from these cow cuts,” said Glen Dolezal of Wichita, Kan., chairman of the industry’s Joint Beef Product Enhancement Subcommittee. “Now, not only do we have more data but we also have information that can be put to use in increasing carcass value.”

This research, performed at the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida, characterizes individual muscles in market cows and helps differentiate their value in the beef carcass. Traits evaluated in the study included shear force (for tenderness estimation), fat and moisture composition, dimensional data, color, pH, water holding capacity, collagen analysis and heme-iron concentration. Sensory testing also was conducted.

 “We found this project was one that should provide specific and significant benefits to cattle producers,” says Stephen Worley, a Beef Board member from Hampshire, Tenn. and chairman of the Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee. “They benefit as a result of an improvement in the value of muscles that were overlooked in the past.”

Rich Otley, director of evaluation for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, says the research is especially valuable because it benefits various segments of the beef production chain.

“The results should be of particular interest to dairy producers, who also pay the beef checkoff,” Otley said. “About half of this research was conducted on dairy animals, and illustrates the increased value that can be derived from them.” About one-fifth of all U.S. beef comes from cattle originating in the dairy industry, Otley noted.

A manual has been developed for the Cow Muscle Profiling program, including summary data and relevant photos from the project. A CD-ROM containing the raw data, as well as other information such as fabrication videos and three-dimensional views of the cow carcass and its cuts, also was produced.  For more information, contact the Research and Knowledge Management Department at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which managed the program on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils, at 303/694-0305.