Red meat yield grading system, bigger finished weights, and more.
by Lilly Platts
Change is inevitable in the beef industry, and recent conversations about potential updates to the yield grading system, a push for heavier finished weights, and a shift to considering whole-animal red meat yield leave many questions about how producers throughout the supply chain could be affected.
At Fall Focus 2024, ASA’s Chip Kemp led Drs. Ty Lawrence, Dale Woerner, and Bryon Wiegand through a series of questions about these potential changes. This conversation took place during the Educational Symposium, allowing attendees to also ask the panelists questions.
Lawrence kicked off the conversation about measuring red meat yield, discussing the implications of the intense focus on ribeye area that has been standard in the industry for some time. Single-trait focus, whether in EPD or phenotype selection, usually has a negative impact on other traits; in this case, overall animal muscling. Currently, the push for bigger finished cattle has caused some producers to put even more emphasis on ribeye in order to continue producing animals that meet yield grade standards. Lawrence shared that under the current system, ribeye has to be a primary focus for profit. A new yield grade system will likely focus more on whole-animal red meat yield, as opposed to individual measurements like ribeye. If a shift toward whole-animal muscling is going to take place, the industry needs to know beforehand. “Whatever the new system may become, all seedstock and commercial producers, all cattle feeders, and everyone upstream needs to know what the new criteria are,” Lawrence shared.
Woerner added that the beef production cycle makes these conversations extremely relevant today, as breeding decisions producers are currently making won’t come to fruition for three years. He predicts that any changes to how yield is measured will take place in three to five years. “You’re making decisions today that may match up to a different yield metric,” Woerner said.
Dr. Wade Shafer asked the panelists about their confidence in these changes coming within three to five years. Woerner shared that he is extremely confident because packers are going to continue moving the needle, whether the USDA (the current third-party oversight agency) keeps up or not.
Woerner cautioned that producers should not decrease their emphasis on ribeye, but rather add emphasis to whole-animal muscling on top of their current criteria. “I would never say to decrease your emphasis on ribeye,” Woerner shared. “But, you’re going to have to increase emphasis on total conformation and phenotype, and undoubtedly that’s good for our industry.”
Feed efficiency is a positive reason for increasing the emphasis on red meat yield. Woerner shared, “If you talk to a growth biologist and a muscle biologist, they will tell you that the best way to improve weight gain and feed efficiency is by improving muscularity. Muscle takes four and a half calories per gram to produce and fat takes time. So, we know that it’s far more efficient to put muscle on an animal than fat,” Woerner said.
Trait selection is a constant balancing act, and putting more emphasis on overall muscling would require producers to evaluate how other traits are affected. Woerner shared that a new yield system could put negative pressure on fat. Consumers demand a marbled, tender, flavorful product, which means this could pose a challenge for producers. “What it means is you [producers] are going to be expected to produce animals with less fat externally and more marbling,” Woerner explained. “Everyone recognizes that we have to maintain genetics for marbling, but we have to do it quicker. The animals are going to have to get there faster, with fewer days on feed and less external fat. It’s a big ask.”
In addition to potential feed efficiency improvements, technology now makes it possible to accurately measure an animal’s total phenotype. Instead of taking individual measurements throughout the animal, X-ray and 3D imaging can capture a holistic measurement. Woerner added that a technology currently exists using radar to measure the conformation of live cattle.
Producers currently have metrics for selecting weaning and yearling weight, marbling, and other carcass traits. A metric for whole-animal-muscling does not exist, which poses a challenge for breed associations and cow-calf producers. Woerner shared that it is too early to give producers advice for trait selection, but anatomically, they do know that the primary drivers of red meat yield include round dimensionality, hindquarter muscling, and forearm and shank circumference. Another challenge is the lack of data. Producers have been diligently collecting measurements on other traits for many years, which allows for a robust, accurate dataset that can be used for future selection. Establishing standards for capturing and submitting these new measures will be important.
Woerner clarified that moving toward a system prioritizing overall red meat yield should not encourage producers to forget about traits like marbling, or to push their cattle to a point where fertility, calving ease, and other critical traits are negatively impacted.
Moving toward a system prioritizing overall red meat yield should not encourage producers to forget about traits like marbling, or to push their cattle to a point where fertility, calving ease, and other critical traits are negatively impacted.
Finished carcass weight is an additional consideration. Lawrence shared that he foresees desired finished weights continuing to increase into the future. “In my opinion, no one in this room will be alive when we hit a plateau,” he shared. “We’re going to continue to add weight for the foreseeable future. Someday a 1,500-pound carcass will be normal, and we’re not that far away.”
Beef processors are limited to killing 390 animals per hour, meaning the heavier the carcass the better they can keep up with increasing costs of operating each year. “They [cattle] have to come in a little heavier day after day, and year after year, to dilute an increasing cost structure that is coming at them just from inflation, if nothing else,” Lawrence added.
Crossbreeding has long been a tool for producing heavier cattle — Simmental genetics were first used in the US for this exact reason — and the practice could be even more important in the future. Wiegand ran a SimAngusTM cow herd for some time, and has experience with pushing performance while maintaining important convenience traits like calving ease. He explained that with the help of a reproductive physiologist he was able to focus on crossbred females that were “curve benders,” meaning they were moderate in size, efficient, bred back, and still produced large calves. “I leaned into this hybridization model and strongly believe in crossbreeding,” he said.
International Genetic Solutions (IGS), which allows for genetic comparison across many breeds and promotes crossbreeding, could also be a valuable tool in navigating these potential changes and challenges. “When I stand in front of 525 undergraduates in animal science I don’t talk about breeds. I talk about biological types of cattle,” Wiegand shared. “If we think about biological types of cattle, I think you [SimGenetics] are in a really good spot, which is why I gravitated to the commercial side of this breed as a biological type of cattle.”
The question of corporate systems was also raised. Corporations like Walmart are establishing their own packing plants, which allows them to have more influence on the entire beef supply chain. With control over the entire system, a corporation like Walmart can demand what they want for their specific model, whether it fits the larger industry’s system or not.
Sustainability is also a frequent topic of conversation in the industry that is strongly tied to consumer demand. Many sustainability conversations point to cow size and efficiency as priorities. Smaller cow size can be beneficial in sustainability efforts, but focusing too much on that area can lead to a decrease in overall calf weight yield each year. Woerner added that urban sprawl and the continual decrease in pasture and tillable acres should be considered. Essentially, fewer cattle need to do more with fewer resources while also meeting industry and consumer demand. “It’s a balance, and I think supply and demand will drive the definition of what we produce,” he said.
Lawrence added that much of the pressure toward larger carcass weights is going to fall on the feeder, meaning cow-calf producers don’t need to place intense focus on increasing weights themselves. “The cattle feeder is going to take care of the bigger carcass…the cattle feeder is where the giant change in carcass weight is coming from, and the math in their economics says to make them bigger year-over-year,” he explained.
The conversation closed with a brief discussion about liver abscesses and respiratory heart failure in the feedlot. Woerner shared that research around liver abscesses is currently ongoing, but is showing that the heritability is under 10%. This suggests that an animal’s likelihood of developing liver abscesses in the feedlot is largely environmental. “It’s hugely environmental and predominantly management-driven,” Woerner said.
Lawrence added that gut health is strongly tied to the instance of liver abscesses. Dairy cattle demonstrate this point. Around 27% of beef cattle that have been on feed for 200 days have a 27% instance of liver abscesses; in dairy cattle, it’s 60%. Dairy-raised calves are pulled off the cow immediately and placed in a confined area. A calf’s rumen isn’t developed for six weeks, but in many instances these calves are being fed steam-flaked corn immediately. “That system is arguably to the detriment of gut health early on, and that manifests itself throughout their lifetime,” Lawrence shared.
Fall Focus 2025 will be held August 22–26, 2025, in Columbia, Missouri. To learn more about this free educational event please visit fallfocus.org.
About the panelists:
Dr. Ty E. Lawrence is a professor of animal science at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU). He was raised on a cow-calf operation near Dalhart, Texas, before pursuing formal education at West Texas A&M University (BS, MS) and Kansas State University (PhD). Lawrence spent two years with Smithfield in the position of research manager for pork harvest and processing facilities on the Eastern Seaboard before entering his academic career. In his current position at West Texas A&M University, he has taught over 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students in 14 different animal, food, and meat science courses. In addition, Dr. Lawrence is the director of the WTAMU Beef Carcass Research Center, which annually evaluates 200,000+ cattle for a variety of research projects. His research activities focus on improving the yield, quality, and safety of red meat products and have resulted in the publication of more than 115 peer-reviewed scientific journal manuscripts.
Dr. Bryon Wiegand is a native of Cairo, Missouri, and is currently professor of Animal Science at the University of Missouri (MU). He has served as a technical advisor to the Missouri Association of Meat Processors, supervises the MU Collegiate Meats Judging Team, and oversees operation of the Mizzou Meat Market (a full-line meat processing plant under USDA inspection). In 2015, he assumed the role of State Meats Extension Specialist. Wiegand has been recognized by his peers with multiple national teaching awards, most notably two career teaching honors, the American Society of Animal Science Distinguished Teacher Award, and the American Meat Science Association Distinguished Teacher Award. He was named a Kemper Teaching Fellow at MU in 2014. Wiegand was appointed as Associate Division Director in Animal Science in 2019, and made responsible for coordinating research farms and auxiliary units as well as animal science outreach to stakeholders in Missouri and beyond. In 2021, he was appointed Director of the Division of Animal Science.
Dr. Dale R. Woerner serves as the Cargill Endowed Professor in Sustainable Meat Science in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University. Dr. Woerner earned his BS and MS degrees in animal science from Texas Tech University in 2003 and 2005, respectively, and earned his PhD in animal science and meat science from Colorado State University in 2009. He served on the faculty at Colorado State University for nine years, joining the faculty at Texas Tech University in his current position in 2018. He has conducted more than 15 million dollars in industry-funded research and has published more than 300 scholarly works, including peer-reviewed manuscripts and technical reports in the area of meat science.
