000417 Test for Cattle Predicts Beef Grade

Wooster, OH - Two researchers have developed a genetic test to determine which young steers will produce prime rib and which will produce only ground chuck.

The DNA test can identify, with 99 percent accuracy, whether cattle have the genetic potential to produce tender, tasty beef if fed and raised properly, said Francis Fluharty, an Ohio State University feedlot nutritionist who developed the test along with molecular biologist Daral Jackwood.

Fluharty said the test would allow farmers and feedlot operators to avoid wasting time and money fattening up cattle that will never produce high-quality steaks. Tough-meat cattle could be eliminated through selective breeding, meaning consumers would get only quality choice cuts for their money.

“I think the potential is huge,” said Jim Riemann, executive director of the Certified Angus Beef Program, which plans to license the test for exclusive use in Angus cattle. “It should take a lot of variability out of the market.”

The test would be done early in a steer's life. Inferior animals could be raised for hamburger or other ground meat whose tenderness isn't as important.

Savings could reach $40 to $50 per animal in the feedlot, Fluharty said. The technology, if widely used, could eliminate most tough beef from the marketplace within a decade, he said.

The test would require a few drops of blood, cost about $10 per animal and take about a week, the researchers said. Further refinements to the test and finding labs to perform it could take up to two years.

The scientists said until now, there was no reliable way of predicting which individual cattle would produce flavorful meat.

An ultrasound scan can show how much fat has built up on a steer's back at a particular time, but it can't show how that fat is distributed or whether it is flecked throughout the animal's muscle in the desirable pattern called marbling.

Meat graders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture look for marbling when deciding whether to rate beef as prime, choice or select.

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