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The Midwest Cattleman · September 15, 2022 · P20
The Value of Charolais on the Rail
tion is projected to double by 2050. “We have to feed more
Heavily muscled carcasses have a place people and provide more high quality protein sources.”
in today’s beef market. Her third reason for encouraging cattlemen to produce
By Paige Nelson more pounds is efficiency. As noted earlier, it takes the same
labor; it takes the same equipment; it takes the same utili-
Once at the packing plant, overhead costs are the same to zation of time at the packing plant to slaughter and break
process a 600 pound (lb.) carcass as they are for a 1,000 lb. down a 600 lb. carcass as it does a 1,000 lb. carcass. Plants
carcass. “Packing plants don’t want to process 600-lb. car- are designed around a continual movement chain, and all
casses,” said Gretchen Mafi, professor of meat science and carcasses are treated equally—heavy or light.
Boulware Endowed Chair of Animal Science for Oklahoma Mafi did offer a word of warning, however. “One thing that
State University, at the American-International Charolais I caution about when we say increasing pounds, is make sure
Association October 2017 Listening and Learning Industry it is increasing cutability, not just weight.”
Session. In other words, carcasses that are heavy because of fat
Luckily, for users of Charolais genetics, 600 lb. carcasses cover are not the goal for increasing pounds of beef.
are rarely an issue. There is, nevertheless, a point of diminishing returns on
“Charolais’ greatest strength is red meat yield and cut- carcasses that are too large. Today’s packing plants were
ability. The ability that [the breed] has to produce calves designed around fabricating 700-900 lb. carcasses. Every-
that grow well and have a high propensity for muscling, pro- thing in the plant from box size to pallet stacking is automat-
duces meat that we can utilize,” said Mafi. ed to fit that average-size carcass. In an attempt to control
One advantage Charolais has over other breeds is they logistics, packers discount 1,050 lb. and higher carcasses.
can continue to select for improved quality while taking ad- “As far as from a feeder and a producer [perspective], obvi-
vantage of increased muscle and yield, which are very valu- ously there’s diminishing returns over 1,050 because of the
able to our industry, she continued. discount,” said Mafi.
Nonetheless, in Mafi’s opinion that’s a dynamic number.
Paid Per Pound “I think a packer will work around as heavy as they get,
Increasing muscle and yield is important “because we’re but I think we have to rethink how we utilize them? Do we
still paid on a price per hundredweight or price per pound change our fabrication method? Are we taking advantage of
basis,” she said. As far as the future is concerned, Mafi that red meat yield and cutability percentage at that heavi-
doesn’t see that type of transaction changing. er weight, and how heavy can we push that and not just be
Additionally, she added, it’s not new news; world popula- adding fat, external fat?”
As for right now, Mafi believes with proper management
Charolais producers and feeders can keep even high growth
cattle below the carcass discount.
Don’t background too long, said Mafi. Get those cattle
to the feedlot, before they get too big, so they can have the
proper number of days on feed, to reach quality targets, be-
fore they enter the packinghouse.
Even with today’s high-growth genetics and the strong
feed efficiency numbers being put up by Charolais cattle,
Mafi doesn’t think too heavy carcasses is a big problem.
“To get to that weight, we’re looking at 1,650 lb. or heavier
live weights, so we probably don’t have that.”
But that 1,050 lb. discount then begs the question: When
selecting for growth, when do we stop. How high is too high?
“That’s a number I don’t think we know for sure what it
is,” answered Mafi. “I think managed properly their carcass-
es won’t be too heavy, and we can take advantage of that
growth potential and that value that it brings. It still comes
back to management.”
Yield Grade
All carcasses that enter USDA inspected packinghouses
are assigned a yield grade (YG) according to their cutabil-
ity or percent of boneless, closely trimmed retail cuts (%
BCTRC). When discussing cutability, often the term “red
meat yield” is used. Red meat yield can be used interchange-
ably with cutability, but it usually refers to the actual sell-
able cuts or red meat being yielded from the carcass after
fabrication.
Yield grades are assigned on a scale of one through five:
USDA graders evaluate carcasses for YG using the hot
carcass weight, adjusted fat thickness (measured at the 12th
rib), ribeye area (measured between the 12th and 13th rib)
and percent of kidney, pelvic and heart fat on the carcass.
The current YG system was developed in the 1960s. “Ob-
viously cattle have changed a lot since the ‘60s,” noted Mafi.
“Our type of cattle, our use of genetics, our improvement,
their efficiency, their ability to gain, and their shapes and
