Jim, what’s up with “the tough ones”? All other things being relative in terms of grade and marbling? Is it a slaughtering thing? Why does that happen?
It can be a combination of stress, age, slaughter techniques and aging, genetics and breeding.
The older an animal the more likely that it will be tough.
I forget the number, but over a certain age an animal can't be graded Prime.
Quite often, an animal from a local producer will be a bit older.
What an animal is fed and for how long its fed can contribute to toughness.
Aging a carcass is terribly important to tenderness too. Some unscrupulous people won't age an animal properly.
The big packers and feeders produce a lot of tough beef. It's just that you might only ever get one tough steak out of 20.
Not like getting the whole animal.
We feed for tenderness and flavor. We feed way longer than the big guys do, mainly to hedge for tenderness.
