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This article is interesting. In this day of trying to reduce fat in America's diet, it's about how ranchers can increase fat in beef cattle. Grass fed beef is popular because it's supposed to be healthier due to reduced fat. Yet, America's taste buds want fattier beef because it's juicier and tastes better.

This article is how ranchers can increase marbling in beef by castrating earlier and weaning 2 months earlier and putting the calves on high energy diets to grow additional fat cells between the muscle fibers. It's about how to pack as much fat as possible into beef.
Michelle would be horrified if she read this.


Marbling Matters as Weaning Time Approaches
ED GLAZAR � TIMES-NEWS

Marbling in cattle � the taste fat � was long considered the feedlot�s responsibility, until research pointed to opportunities all the way back to the ranch.

Genetic potential is a key, and deposition of this intramuscular fat links to management decisions much earlier than those final months on feed.

In one of those critical points, a 60-day window before and after weaning, fat cells undergo a transition from increasing in number to growing in size.

Decisions can affect both number and size.

Jason Ahola, Colorado State University animal scientist delves into the details in his recent whitepaper, �Effects of the 60-day Window Around the Time of Weaning on Subsequent Quality Grade and Eating Quality of Beef,� available at www.cabpartners.com/news/research.php .

The full-scale analysis found marbling deposition can be influenced by diet and management during the window from pre-weaning through about 250 days of age. As a known time when fat deposition processes may be altered, those 60 days represent an opportunity.

�It appears if we can influence the number of cells, we can influence the amount of fat or marbling cattle put into those cells,� Ahola says. �This differentiation that occurs around the time of weaning is somewhat dependent on what kind of feed the cattle are on, their energy balance and the amount of stress they are under.�

The fact that weaning is the most stressful event in a calf�s life underscores this period�s critical nature for marbling deposition. Ahola�s paper covers a wide scope of influences from nutrition to low-stress weaning, creep feeding, mineral supplements, castration, implants and weaning time.

He found two main practices with a proven positive impact: early castration and weaning early onto a high-energy diet.

Nearly all producers castrate male calves, but not all may realize research shows the earlier calves are cut, the better their carcass quality and value in grid marketing.

Those who wean early may not think about enhancing calf value or carcass quality, but weaning at 100 to 150 days of age (compared to the industry norm of 205 days) has been shown to improve marbling if weaned onto a high-energy ration.

In turn, the probability of reaching Premium Choice or Prime is greater in early-weaned cattle according to several studies, but overall profitability of this practice over conventional weaning has not been studied says Ahola.

At any rate, the apparent advantages do not consistently hold true for normal weaned calves, for which starting on a high-energy ration has no impact on later carcass merit. However, they do perform better than late-weaned cattle.

Studies have shown quality grade and back fat are not affected by late weaning age and data does not suggest a negative impact on carcass quality. However, cattle placed on feed earlier such as early weaned or normally weaned calves have greater marbling than those placed on feed as yearlings.

In addition to early weaning, placing calves onto a high-energy diet immediately after weaning allows favorable marbling changes to occur, the research says. Providing high-energy diets to calves at a young, less than typical weaning age, enhances deposition of intramuscular fat, more so that simply weaning at an early age.

To harness the marbling genetic potential of the Angus breed, Ahola points to a combination of practices at the cow-calf level that create a low-stress environment for calves.

His recipe includes tactics proven to enhance marbling as well as strategies that have at least some evidence of a positive impact through reduction of stress.

Beyond prompt castration and early weaning onto a high-energy diet, Ahola found low-stress management such as fence-line weaning or use of a self-weaning nose flap, in combination with a vaccination program, worming, and mineral supplementation can help with marbling.

While not all of these practices have proven scientific links to marbling, several large studies have shown a link between treatment rates for illness and quality grade or marbling. The more times an animal must be treated, the more detrimental it is to intramuscular fat deposition.

�Set cattle up in such a way that they are considered to be low-risk cattle at weaning,� Ahola recommends.

Regarding growth technologies around the time of weaning or branding, research shows implants do not influence marbling deposition. However, giving a steer more than two implants over its lifetime has had negative impacts on end product quality.

The industry continually struggles to meet a growing demand for highly marbled beef, but Ahola suggests one answer is an increased management focus on promoting intramuscular fat deposition prior to the feedlot phase.

�Our industry currently is under-supplying highly marbled beef to consumers,� he says. �If we are going to be more profitable and if we are going to provide our consumers with a better product, we need to increase the average marbling of our cattle.�

Research shows the way to cow-calf producers, through a marbling window to higher profitability

I'm not a fan of marbling myself but a lot of people obviously like it.

LOL, fat or not matters none, all commercial beef is steroided, hormoned and iradiated, it's all trash, just some of the trash will make you fatter.

Grass fed unfu-ked with beef and wild game is all that's consumed here.

Not just reduced, but different fat, more omega-3, less omega-6.

If I pay for a steak, I want it tender...

If I wanted a tough piece of meat, I'd just go shoot a scrawny jackrabbit.

There's an old saying that still holds true.

"No bone, no fat, no taste." True enough.

Grass fed beef is all well and good. But, there are things to consider with that too. The fat will taste like what the animal is eating, so the time of year the animal is fattened and killed makes a difference. A calf eating green vegetation and perhaps a few stronger weeds will have a more gamey taste. One that is eating and fattening on grass that is cured on the stem in the fall will not taste as gamey. Still has the yellow fat, but a better taste.

We eat very little beef. An elk in the freezer along with several of our meat goats and chickens/ducks/geese and we're good for the year.
Goats are browsers, like deer. If they have their preferred diet, the meat tastes very much like venison. Most of them, however, are raised on grass so the meat is milder. It doesn't marble at all so if you trim the fat off the outside, the meat has close to zero fat. It's like eating pasture grown deer.

Best meat I ever had was a young buck I shot that was eating pinon nuts for the past while, as they were plentiful, and the deer love them.

Cut it with a fork, and was heavenly. I sure hated to see the last package of that buck cooked...

This. Grass and wild forage is the natural diet of ungulates. Loads them up with omega 3 fats. That's also why eggs from hens that spend their days on a wild pasture have three times the omega 3 than typical grocery store eggs. Feedlot finished cattle lose all that by the time they're slaughtered. I must admit, though, that beef from feedlot finished cattle sure tastes better than from grass finished cattle.

The OP article is about how to wean younger and get the calves on high energy feed sooner. That should reduce the omega-3's even more.

Yup, have a custom order buyer from Ks that comes down and buys straight from my farm, no new sickness from running them through a sale barn either.

I have found that it is hard to beat a fed out calf, if the calf is fed out by the person at the right time of year, to be killed on cooler weather, and fed at home. Not a feedlot. No injections, no vaccinations. Just beef and a good feed.

I prefer a heifer over a steer too.

With our goats, I find that bucks are better than wethers (steers). They grow faster and have a higher ratio of meat to fat. As long as they're butchered young enough, there's no hormonal flavoring.

There's no finer beef than what is raised in Argentina.

It is all grass-fed, free range. They do not lot-feed cattle

Been there twice and that is what was told to me. The beef is unbelievably tender and flavorful. It is definitely different because it isn't loaded with fat. It is not as rich. You can eat more of it without feeling like you did.

BTW, I don't think there is even one person in Argentina that is overweight or even close to "obese". It's easy to tell you are back in an American airport by the fat slobs you see.

Quite a shock to the eyes once they get used to hot women in Argentina!

Yessir, I have one old man neighbor that buys a 5/600 weight steer from me each year, he wants it rounded out on straight corn for 60 days before slaughter, guess he likes em butter fat.

Said he eats and distributes meat to his family members throughout the year.

Agreed on all counts RC.

rcamuglia

Odd you mention the fat people and hotties in Argentina.

I was there hunting stag in 2013 and noticed the exact same thing. NO fat people and the amount of hot chicks is staggering.

Come to think of it, of all the places I have travelled in the world, only in the US is there any amount of fat people. I'e been to all 6 inhabitable continents and the US (maybe Canada too) is the only place like that.

Hey now!

The two things most important things in life: incredible food and stunning women.

Argentina baby!

That's saying nothing about millions of birds, big game, trout. Unbelievable country with everything a guy could want. I'd like to go to Patagonia

The political situation leaves something to be desired... LOL

Pacifico beer is good stuff. The Mesicans take credit for it but some Germans brewed it first.

It's the high starch, and high processed food, diets Americans eat.