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Marbling: Its Use in Predicting Beef Carcass Composition^{1, 2,}

University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706

Abstract

Carcasses from 22 market beef steers representing various breeds, shapes and degrees of fatnesses were separated into bone, extractable fat and fat-free muscle, and the latter variable was expressed as a proportion of carcass weight. A number of easily measured traits served as independent variables to predict percent fat-free muscle. Of those observed (adjusted fat thickness, percent kidney-heart-pelvic fat, seam fat score at fifth costae, marbling score, longissimus area, muscling score of the round, hot carcass weight and U.S.D.A. cutability score), a combination of adjusted fat thickness, longissimus area and marbling score accounted for 73% of the variation in percent fat-free muscle ± 2.2%. This combination surpassed the effectiveness of the present U.S.D.A. cutability equation and also would not require an estimate of percent kidney, heart and pelvic fat (sometimes removed at time of slaughter). Furthermore, the new combination of traits would eliminate the use of carcass weight which is negatively related to composition and thus has implied a superiority of lighter weight carcasses which could serve as a detriment to the progress of the beef industry.

Marbling content has always been solely considered as a quality factor, but it is apparent from these findings that it can also serve as an important quantitative measure. When it was combined with other important single traits, the inclusion of marbling resulted in an increase in the coefficient of determination ranging from 4 to 33% and a decrease of the standard error of the estimate ranging from .1 to .8% when compared on an absolute basis. Seam fat score was equally as effective as marbling score, but it was not recommended for use because it is not practical to make transverse sections at the fifth costae (rib-chuck junction) in present commercial methods of handling beef carcasses.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Meat and Animal Science, Muscle Biology Manuscript No. 70.

² This investigation was supported in part by Ankony Angus Corporation, Grand Junction, Colorado.

³ Present address: Oscar Mayer & Co., Calmar, Iowa.

⁴ Ankony Angus Corporation, Grand Junction, Colorado.

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