Goal: Increase beef consumption

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas

March 21, 2002 -- "Our goal is to increase the consumption of beef in the state of Texas, as well as the U.S.," said Mike McCravey of the Texas Beef Council as he opened the recent South Central Regional Beef Quality meeting in Hills Prairie.

"We believe that working with you (producers), we can improve the quality and consistency of beef cattle. If we do, we have a more consistent product as you do a better job of managing those cattle. We'll have a better product for those customers and they're going to come back again and again," he said to the group gathered at Hills Prairie Livestock Auction for the meeting.

McCravey said in 13 of the last 15 quarters, beef demand has gone up, largely due to producers concerns and promotion efforts.

Mike De La Zerda of the Texas Beef Council started his comments on a positive note. He said that between 1993 and '98, the more desirable cuts of meat went up in price, although chuck and round went down.

"One of the things that the National Council of Beef Association, along with two universities, the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida did was something called muscle profiling," said De La Zerda.

He explained that 27 muscles of the chuck and 12 muscles of the round were profiled and recorded for tenderness, size, weight and color, among other traits. Researchers were trying to get as much information as possible so producers and packers could benefit more from more parts of the carcass.

By pulling individual muscles out of the carcass and processing those for marketing, beef producers should be able to offer new cuts of meat or with new names and tenderness, said De La Zerda.

"We know that the loin and the rib can pretty much sell themselves ... ," he added. "We have this new collateral piece ... one of the new buzz words that's out there ... and we call it beef value cuts."

Some of the muscles are being marketed as steaks, such as a flat iron and ranch cut. The flat iron is considered to be the second most tender muscle in the carcass, said De La Zerda.

With the connective tissue that had caused the meat to be tough removed, packers are able to add value to the cuts of meat. He said that the ranch cut comes from the shoulder and is tender and very flavorful.

While some of these cuts haven't really caught on in our area, De La Zerda said that there are restaurant chains on the East and West coasts that are selling them.

Another reason for sales in beef to go up is the prepackaging. Many retail stores no longer have butchers available to customers.

"You look behind the counter and there's really not anyone there anymore," said De La Zerda.

"Case-ready product is a product that comes from the packer already packaged in a container that's ready to be put in a case. The main benefit, I think, is from the food safety stand point. There's less handling of that product and less chance of any cross-contamination taking place at the retail level."

He said that the number one concern of packers has been, and is, food safety. Much of the retail industry is moving toward the case ready products, which are more cost and time efficient for the customer.

Concerning beef quality assurance programs, De La Zerda said that although Texas was not the first to have a special program for the cow/calf stocker sector, it now has training throughout the year.

"In the past, the feedyards have had a beef quality assurance program. The packers have had a food safety assurance program ... and the only thing that was missing was a cow/calf quality assurance program at the stocker level," he added.

Another vital part of beef quality assurance has to be is record keeping, according to De La Zerda.

"What we're trying to do is get producers to establish a good relationship with their veterinarians. That may be something that is missing," he said.

Top priorities include disease control and drug, pesticide and chemical residues, which are covered in the stockers' training.

Dr. Dan Hale, TCE with TAMU talked abut the impact of value and quality in the feedyards and how important animal health, genetics, stress management and average daily gain are to the producers.

He said that harvesting an animal drops off 39 percent of the total weight of the cattle, leaving 51 percent to bone, fat and ground beef and only 10 percent to "glamour" cuts.

Hale advised producers to know the target markets, what they have, how to get to the target, how the management of their cattle is going and how to evaluate the results.

"These are all quality-related issues," said Hale.

According to him, about 20 percent of cattle miss the target.

With Japan being the number one customer of U.S. beef, De La Zerda said that beef producers need to help assure them that our beef is still good, after the BSE ("mad cow") problems witnessed there, last year. He said that Canada and Australia are competing for the business and it will be up to the consumer how the beef market goes.

"The consumer is who all answer to," closed De La Zerda.