Marbling And Age Of Cattle

There are three main types of fat depots in beef cattle carcases.

Marbling and age of cattle.

Carcasses with more marbling and higher yield grades qualify for higher prices. The marbling is further encouraged by confining the animals to small pens and feeding them an energy dense diet. Beef breeds are usually raised and harvested for meat between 18 and 22 months of age. The canadian packing industry will generally discount canada 3 y3 carcasses.

Best quality which means here that the steak is either graded as usda prime grade or is its equivalent in terms of the cattle s age and its marbling quality and that it is dry aged for a substantial period of time. Determine age using thoracic buttons. In terms of chronological age the buttons begin to ossify at 30 months of age. The shift to primarily black angus in the late 1970s came about in part because black angus cattle marble extremely well.

Carcasses are stratified into five maturity groups based on the estimated age of the live animal. These cattle were fed to age constant average basis of 457 d and the means for carcass weight fat thickness and marbling score are presented in table 1. Murray grey cattle grazing at autumn s harvest in new york. Cattle breeds such as angus herefords murray grey shorthorns and wagyu also british white cattle and dairy breeds such as the jersey holstein friesian and braunvieh have higher marbling scores on average versus other cattle such as simmentals charolais or chianina.

Marbling can also be influenced by time on feed. Carcasses with lower yields less marbling cattle over 30 months of age over and under weight carcasses due to genetics and over and underfeeding cattle receive discounts. The age of cattle is important. In contrast scotch beef is predominantly grass fed and free ranging.

Marbling was significantly higher for purebred angus than purebred hereford steers and the angus steers were also fatter. Well raised which means that the cattle are raised in a healthy low stress environment. Calves were weaned at seven months of age and fed as calves. When the percentage ossification of the cartilage reaches 10 35 70 and 90 percent the maturity is b c d and e respectively.

Increased marbling is associated with improved eating quality through juiciness and flavour. Marbling can be influenced by selective breeding. Asian cattle however are fed for much longer periods of time close to three years in fact where u s. Veal or young cattle develop intramuscular fat last after subcutaneous fat kidney pelvic and heart fat and intermuscular fat.

When an animal is too young it won t display marbling.