Alberta’s senior beef grader says prairie producers have improved meat quality in the past few years, but more must be done.
Fred Taylor, the Canadian Beef Grading Agency’s grade standards supervisor in Alberta, told producers at the recent Cattle Congress in Saskatoon that he sees the good and the bad of western Canadian production practices and genetics from the inside out – at the slaughter plant.
What he has seen has convinced him that there is a future for “purebred, identity preserved and high-end” meat from Western Canada.
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“Producers who want to raise (cattle) up and drop them off at the auction market are going to lose out on the profits that are going to be the future of this business. When the packers can get all the cattle they want, I wouldn’t want to be in that guy’s boots,” he said.
“Last summer saw some producers taking home $150 per head more than others. If a (producer’s) banker knew he took home $150 less than the neighbour, I expect he’d have to explain that.”
Taylor said producers need to improve carcass quality, handling and shipping by focusing on the markets for their products.
“Half to one percent of the cattle are grading prime,” he said.
“There is one producer in Alberta who has had recent shipments grade 11 percent prime. If you market on the grid, that makes you a lot of money as a cattleman.”
Fifty percent of Canadian beef is grading AAA, 25 percent AA and 15 percent A.
Taylor said at times last year “there were days when four percent were grading AAA. You want feedback. The packers give feedback when that happens. Their market needs at least 30 percent AAA and it has to be consistent.”
He said Cargill’s packing plant in High River, Alta., often produced better marbled beef last year than the company’s U.S. plants.
“That is new and that is where the profits are.”
Taylor said the cattle industry must closely monitor questionable retail practices, such as grocery stores moving away from well-stocked meat counters and in-store meat cutting, and increasing beef margins.
“Some meat retailers are going so far as to start injecting water into the product,” he said.
“When people buy that meat and realize they have been paying $10 a pound for water, that isn’t doing us any good either. You need to lobby against this sort of practice.”
Branded beef programs are helping capture higher prices for producers, and Taylor said the trend will continue.
“AAA and prime isn’t limited to crosses. I am seeing purebred carcasses, including the British and exotics breeds, coming through with excellent marbling.
“They need to be the right genetics and that is going to be a product of feedback.”
He said the ability to trace an animal back to the farm is to the producer’s advantage.
Brian Weedon, a rancher from Swift Current, Sask., who attended the meeting, agreed. “Producers need to be able to see how their animals are scoring and which genetics are working.”
Taylor said producers should not be afraid to invest in basic detective work about their own herds.
He recommended purebred producers finish cull cows for six weeks before shipping them and then ask for a carcass score on the animal, including a rib eye measurement.
“The daughters of those cows that score well are gold. Those whose mothers score poorly need to be culled out fast before they pollute the rest of the herd,” he said.
“Once your cows are cleaned up, then you need to select the right bulls.”
He said inspectors are seeing less meat condemned and cut out, but it still happens.
“When you damage an animal with a needle or bruise it, the whole industry pays. In the future, it would better if only that producer would pay,” he said.
“When you ship an animal covered in tag, muddy up to the shoulder, that is when we see slaughter lines shut down and delayed and E. coli scares for consumers. Clean them up before they leave your feed yards.”
Purebred cull bulls need to be shipped at 18 to 24 months.
“Don’t wait to evaluate them. We can tell immediately as a carcass, no matter how old you say it was. It moves from an A (grade) to an E. It’s your money.”
Taylor said carcass weights have become too large and the market for large cuts of meat is shrinking.
Average Canadian carcass weights have grown to 900 pounds from 800 lb. in January 2000. Taylor said 650 to 750 lb. is the ideal weight.
“The market for the big animals is coming to a close and the sooner producers get those animals off the feed and into the packer the better it’s going to be for them and the business as a whole.”
He said the market for lean, unmarbled beef in Eastern Canada and Quebec is slowing.
