RED DEER, Alta. – Millions of steers and heifers are fattened in North American feedlots each year, and most receive growth hormones.
The ear implants improve average daily gain and increase red meat yields with proportionately less fat, said Marshall Streeter, a veterinarian with Intervet Schering Plough Animal Health, which manufactures products such as Revalor and the feed additive Zilmax.
“What is going to suffer is quality grade,” he said at a company sponsored seminar in Red Deer late last month.
“Those cattle are going to be leaner. That is part of the reason that they grew more efficiently.”
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A new product, Revalor XS, appears to improve marbling scores and overall average yield grades when compared to past products. Only one implant is needed, and it adds four to five pounds of additional carcass weight, which translates into more revenue when the cattle are sold.
An Iowa State University study found that ionophores, antimicrobials, beta-agonists, and dewormers have improved the average daily gain and feed efficiency for feedlot cattle, while growth promoting implants allow producers to finish cattle to a higher weight without affecting the carcass fat content.
The study also said U.S. beef production would drop by 19 percent, or five billion pounds a year, if producers had to stop using these technologies. The United States would have to import more beef to cover the shortfall, it added.
Beef producer Christoph Weder does not dispute the benefits of these products, but as a marketer of premium beef to international high-end restaurants and hotels he has chosen not to rely on steroids.
“It makes them grow faster, it makes them feed efficient, makes them have higher meat yields,” he said from his ranch in northern Alberta.
“I don’t dispute it one iota, but it does affect the quality of the meat.”
The cattle coming out of his Heritage Angus program, which are not given hormone implants, are 50 to 100 lb. lighter than conventional fed cattle, but he said they are more consistent than commodity beef.
Hormones can reduce marbling scores, although Weder said those bits of fat found in the meat are not fully responsible for tasty, tender beef.
“You can have marbled beef and it is as tough as leather. The reality when you use those things is the variability of the quality of your beef coming out the back end, in terms of taste and tenderness, is all over the place.”
Weder agreed with Streeter that hormones can make average cattle better.
“Implants have become very good at creating better cattle out of poorer cattle,” he said. “It is a way to correct for poor muscled cattle.”
Instead of steroids, Weder uses proven genetic lines from New Zealand that were developed to thrive on forage and produce quality beef.
He works with a small group of producers to sell beef in Canada, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Dubai.
“We produce a beef that is AA and better. Cattle that aren’t implanted actually marble faster than implanted cattle. The cattle are lighter and they will not get as big. The cost is higher to grow those cattle, but we do produce a consistent quality product,” he said.
“The customers of our product rave about the product because it’s got consistent taste and consistent tenderness, but it costs us more to produce it and we have to charge for it.”
The risks are also higher because the quality targets are hard to hit.
Streeter said some choose not to chase premiums because ultimately most people are paid by weight rather than quality.
“Quality grade is the big component we hear the most discussion about, but the problem with quality grade is there is a doggone small premium for upper two-thirds Choice and Prime (highest U.S. grades),” he said.
“There are very few premiums to chase and a whole lot of risk on the other side.”
The company also manufactures Zilmax, or zilpaterol, which was approved for use in Canada last year. It is administered for 20 days at the end of the feeding period to improve feed efficiency. The withdrawal period is three days in the U.S. and four days in Canada.
Twelve studies have been completed on steers in North America representing 24,000 head of cattle.
Steers added an extra 30 lb. on Zilpaterol while heifers gained an extra 24 lb. of carcass weight.
The result is a larger carcass with an increased dressing percentage of more than one percent. There were more Grade 1 and fewer Grade 4 and 5, which are at the lower end of the grading spectrum.
A ribeye that may have measured 12 sq. inches is increased to nearly 13 sq. inches.
The net return for steers on Zilmax growing an extra 30 lb. was another $48 US. Zilmax costs $21 per head, so a profit is still realized.
