All cattle in the Leachman system are carefully performance-recorded. Lee Leachman, co-owner, sees stocking rate as the biggest driving factor of profit in any uncoupled setup selling at weaning.
However, looking further down the line, when the animal enters the feedlot, conversion and marbling becomes the driver.
“We want the cow to eat less to feed the calf, because that grass costs money, and we want the calf to convert. When you wean that calf and put the calf in their barn and feed it to slaughter, conversion is a fierce driver. Then in our system red meat yield matters, but because the marbling is so important that’s what increases your grades of pay.”
While it may offend some breeders, Lee sees continental breeds as a second tier when it comes to marbling.
Muscles
“All the European breeds pulled the cart. That’s why they’re heavy muscled. If you’re pulling a plough cart you need muscle. All the British Isles breeds, however, didn’t. Turns out, the ones that pulled the carts are heavy muscled but don’t marble. It’s just the way it is. The Holstein and the Jerseys are showing good on the marbling and if you make an Angus Holstein or Angus Jersey then they’re going to grade high too.”
The Colorado man sees marbling as the biggest factor holding back Irish beef. The marbling, or lack of it, brings about serious inconsistency for buyers and sellers.
“You get a good steak, and you get a mediocre one. You go to the supermarket or a restaurant, it’s pretty dodgy. Even though they age it and do all that stuff, it’s still pretty dodgy.
“The reason is the meat’s not tender and not favourable. It turns out the marbling is the big driver of that. When you get up to that big amount of marbling, the meat is always good. It’s not sometimes good, it’s always good. It’s not the fat on the outside, it’s the fat on the inside.”
Marbling grades
Lee spoke about the different marbling grades of American beef, namely select, choice and prime. The majority of beef from Ireland would be classified as the middle grade – select.
In a blind taste trial undertaken by 300 people based on steaks cooked to a medium degree, only 50% of the people gave a thumbs up for the select cuts, while 99% gave a positive score for the prime cut.
“What other product do you buy that fails more than half the time?” Lee said.
“You never eat a plain piece of chicken and say it was good because it doesn’t have any flavour. If you eat good chicken it’s because it has a good sauce on it, and the sauce had fat and sugar in it. The same has happened to pork.
EU system
“You’re stuck in the EU grading, but my thought is that your processors will depart from that system because they can still do that system and grade the marbling on top of that. That’s what New Zealand has done, the Australians have done and what we do here – because it works.”
Leachman also highlighted the differences in carcase trimming between Ireland and the US and highlights just how much the top-end marbling premium is worth to producers.
“We trim the carcase differently. When we hang the carcase, all the kidney, pelvic and heart fat is still in and we don’t take any of that rump fat off or very little of it anyway. You guys do a lot more trimming so from your liveweight to deadweight yours is about a 55% carcase; ours is about a 63%. It’s the same carcase, it’s just trimmed differently. When I say a carcase weighs 400kg here it’s not as big as you think because all that fat’s still there.
Marbling
“If today the average carcase weight is about 375kg or 380kg, which is what it is with all the fat still in it, there was a time this year at which the difference in value between that select and that prime was $300 on that same weight carcase. The marbling is driving that. So if you’re raising it in our setup you want a big carcase but you want it to be prime marbling also.”
Read more
Ever wondered how farmers in the States are paid for their beef?
Leachman herd, part I: Maintaining a 365 calving interval with 10,000 cows
Leachman herd, part II: Performance testing 3,000 bulls in three months
Leachman herd, part III: 'A smaller cow is good financially and on emissions'
All cattle in the Leachman system are carefully performance-recorded. Lee Leachman, co-owner, sees stocking rate as the biggest driving factor of profit in any uncoupled setup selling at weaning.
However, looking further down the line, when the animal enters the feedlot, conversion and marbling becomes the driver.
“We want the cow to eat less to feed the calf, because that grass costs money, and we want the calf to convert. When you wean that calf and put the calf in their barn and feed it to slaughter, conversion is a fierce driver. Then in our system red meat yield matters, but because the marbling is so important that’s what increases your grades of pay.”
While it may offend some breeders, Lee sees continental breeds as a second tier when it comes to marbling.
Muscles
“All the European breeds pulled the cart. That’s why they’re heavy muscled. If you’re pulling a plough cart you need muscle. All the British Isles breeds, however, didn’t. Turns out, the ones that pulled the carts are heavy muscled but don’t marble. It’s just the way it is. The Holstein and the Jerseys are showing good on the marbling and if you make an Angus Holstein or Angus Jersey then they’re going to grade high too.”
The Colorado man sees marbling as the biggest factor holding back Irish beef. The marbling, or lack of it, brings about serious inconsistency for buyers and sellers.
“You get a good steak, and you get a mediocre one. You go to the supermarket or a restaurant, it’s pretty dodgy. Even though they age it and do all that stuff, it’s still pretty dodgy.
“The reason is the meat’s not tender and not favourable. It turns out the marbling is the big driver of that. When you get up to that big amount of marbling, the meat is always good. It’s not sometimes good, it’s always good. It’s not the fat on the outside, it’s the fat on the inside.”
Marbling grades
Lee spoke about the different marbling grades of American beef, namely select, choice and prime. The majority of beef from Ireland would be classified as the middle grade – select.
In a blind taste trial undertaken by 300 people based on steaks cooked to a medium degree, only 50% of the people gave a thumbs up for the select cuts, while 99% gave a positive score for the prime cut.
“What other product do you buy that fails more than half the time?” Lee said.
“You never eat a plain piece of chicken and say it was good because it doesn’t have any flavour. If you eat good chicken it’s because it has a good sauce on it, and the sauce had fat and sugar in it. The same has happened to pork.
EU system
“You’re stuck in the EU grading, but my thought is that your processors will depart from that system because they can still do that system and grade the marbling on top of that. That’s what New Zealand has done, the Australians have done and what we do here – because it works.”
Leachman also highlighted the differences in carcase trimming between Ireland and the US and highlights just how much the top-end marbling premium is worth to producers.
“We trim the carcase differently. When we hang the carcase, all the kidney, pelvic and heart fat is still in and we don’t take any of that rump fat off or very little of it anyway. You guys do a lot more trimming so from your liveweight to deadweight yours is about a 55% carcase; ours is about a 63%. It’s the same carcase, it’s just trimmed differently. When I say a carcase weighs 400kg here it’s not as big as you think because all that fat’s still there.
Marbling
“If today the average carcase weight is about 375kg or 380kg, which is what it is with all the fat still in it, there was a time this year at which the difference in value between that select and that prime was $300 on that same weight carcase. The marbling is driving that. So if you’re raising it in our setup you want a big carcase but you want it to be prime marbling also.”
Read more
Ever wondered how farmers in the States are paid for their beef?
Leachman herd, part I: Maintaining a 365 calving interval with 10,000 cows
Leachman herd, part II: Performance testing 3,000 bulls in three months
Leachman herd, part III: 'A smaller cow is good financially and on emissions'
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