CALGARY — Beef quality starts in the feedlot, says a University of Nebraska veterinary.
The way animals are fed, handled and injected all determine how their carcasses will grade.
Dee Griffin, who spoke at the Alberta Cattle Feeders annual meeting, said serious charges against the beef industry have made producers realize there’s room for improvement.
He said cattlemen were smug when salmonella was discovered in chicken and the pork industry had problems with sulfa drug residues. Now it’s beef’s turn to take criticism with the spread of hamburger disease and consumer complaints about injection site injuries and use of growth hormones.
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As a vet, he said people should pay attention to how and where animals are injected. Careless injections cause damage to muscle tissue ranging from slight bruising to watery abscesses. All these flaws must be cut away as waste.
Last year, 33 percent of top sirloins in the U.S. showed up with blemishes, which is unacceptable at the retail level, said Griffin. Of these injection-site injuries, 14 percent had abscessed. These blemishes are often deep in muscle tissue and don’t show up until the retail meat cutter finds it.
Watch withdrawal period
Feedlots and ranchers must also read labels more closely and pay attention to withdrawal times. Some people don’t realize as drugs are modified, withdrawal times change, he said. For example, the product Ivomec used to have a withdrawal time of 30 days but new formulations have changed to 45 days.
Griffin said random sampling by U.S. government inspectors catches carcasses that carry drug residues due to overdosing or incorrect withdrawal times. In the U.S. 300,000 head, or one percent of annual beef slaughter, carry residues every year.
“Our business is feeding people. Anything other than zero percent is not good enough.”
