Exploring Carcass Characteristics Different Cow Breeds

Join Lindsey as she provides a comprehensive comparison of beef carcasses from various breeds at similar weights. She discusses the physical differences, challenges in processing, and implications for the beef industry.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to identify the diversity of beef breeds and their influence on carcass size and shape
• The challenges posed by carcass variations in processing, particularly in larger packing plants
• Understanding the implications of crossbreeding, such as the addition of Wagyu bloodlines to Holstein dairy cattle

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Transcript:

Lindsey Fulton:
Okay everybody, welcome back to Blondie’s Butcher Shop. Here’s another great segment just to give you a good idea of the difference of different breeds in the industry, crossings of the different breeds. Being in Minnesota, I have a lot of diversity in my cattle here that I get to work with. And what I want to show you right now is the dairy influence crossed with a wagyu and that’s going to be your center one right here. This is a 973 pound carcass. If you go over here this is a black angus and this is a 936 pound carcass. Excuse the deer in the corner. Can you see the mass difference and the Holstein influence?

Wagu are traditionally a smaller animal. They’re much more heritage looking. They’re just kind of a different physicality of beef than a traditional Angus or Shorthorn or Hereford. But you can see the black Angus right here. There’s maybe a 20, 30 pound difference between these two carcasses, but you can see the vast, vast difference and you can see the problems that we would have in the larger packing plants, trying to get these cattle through, especially the robots that are built for more of the angus short-horn size carcass than the wagyu holstein-influenced carcass.

Now this has been really beneficial for the holstein dairy industry, adding beef into their animals, adding wagyu bloodlines in, but as you can see the dairy influence is still really strong. More pronounced hindquarter right here, deeper chested, longer spine, a lot more animal to handle for people processing and especially somebody like me who’s five foot three. So they’re not always my favorite to cut but they are my favorite to eat, I will tell you that. And then we look over here and this final carcass is a 703 pound carcass.

So it’s kind of interesting to look at the Angus blood that we have over here, the Holstein Wagyu and the Angus blood here that weighs a couple hundred pounds less than our first Angus here. So pretty dramatic difference for those of you who don’t get to see these crosses in your area or kind of wonder what these crosses look like with the hideoff. Definitely a little bit more challenge to them, a lot more animal to cut, a greater yield on these animals. Also know that when we’re adding Weigu into some of these cross, they’re not going to be your traditional 16 to 18 months. So just know that kind of a crazy difference thinking they’re that close in weight. But there’s a great visual for y’all.