QUEBEC CITY — The Canadian beef industry is considering importing new technology from Australia that could enhance the accuracy of grading.
It will also improve the pricing system at the slaughter house and give cattle producers a better idea of what type of stock returns the most profit at the packers.
“Without any doubt, this would be a boost for the Canadian industry,” said Steve Morgan-Jones of the Agriculture Canada research station at Lacombe, Alta.
During a meeting of the industry-government consultative committee on beef grading Feb. 2, he made a pitch for the new technology. The grading committee will be evaluating it at the next meeting in April.
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According to Jones, the existing grading techniques used in slaughter houses since 1972 are too inaccurate. They do not take account of the trend in recent decades to produce a leaner animal.
Determines fat and bone
The Australian technology, based on video images of the whole carcass, has proven more accurate in determining the amount of fat and bone that will be discarded and not return a profit to farmers, he said.
“The present procedure is not particularly useful,” he said. “This could be a whole lot better than we have now.”
He said industry tests will be necessary before its commercial application can be proven, but the prospects are good.
He said it could cost each slaughter house between $75,000 and $100,000 to buy and install. The payoff would be in having a better early assessment of the value of a carcass.
“This would send better signals back to producers about the type of animal that will return the most for them,” Jones said in an interview after his presentation to the committee. “It would fine-tune the system and I think we’d see a fairer pricing system come out of it.”
Even if further testing is positive and a deal can be worked out with the Australians, it would be at least 1995 before the technology could be in use, he predicted.
Grading may improve with help from Down Under
