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National Beef Quality Audit-2022: in-plant assessments of quality and yield determining carcass characteristics of fed steers and heifers.

Thachary R MayerSydni E BordersTrent E SchwartzKerri B GehringDavey B GriffinChristopher R KerthKeith E BelkJohn A ScangaMahesh N NairMorgan M PfeifferGretchen G MafiKeayla M HarrTy E LawrenceTravis C TennantLoni W LucherkTravis G O'QuinnErin S BeyerPhillip D BassLyda G GarciaBenjamin M BohrerJessica A PempekAndrea J GarmynRobert J MaddockC Chad CarrT Dean PringleTracy L SchefflerJason M SchefflerAlexander M StelzleniJohn M GonzalezKeith R UnderwoodBailey N HarshCrystal M WatersJeffrey W Savell
Published in: Translational animal science (2024)
The National Beef Quality Audit - 2022 serves as a benchmark of the current fed steer and heifer population of the U.S. beef industry and allows comparison to previous audits as a method of monitoring industry progress. In-plant cooler assessments and collections of beef carcass data took place from July 2021 to November 2022. During in-plant evaluations, 10% of 1-d production was surveyed for quality and yield indicating characteristics of fed beef carcasses ( n =  9,746 beef carcasses). Distributions of sex classes among sampled carcasses were steer (65.0%) and heifer (35.0%), whereas distributions of breed type were native (87.7%), dairy (11.3%), and Bos indicus (0.9%). Mean values were observed for USDA Yield Grades ( YG ; 3.3), USDA Quality Grade ( QG ; Choice 16 ), marbling score (Small 98 ), ribeye area (91.0 cm 2 ), adjusted fat thickness (1.49 cm), hot carcass weight (401.9 kg), and KPH (2.5%). Mean overall maturity was A 66 , with a mean lean maturity of A 56 and mean skeletal maturity of A 72 . There were 28.1% of carcasses identified for use in a USDA-certified beef G-Schedule Program. Defects, such as dark cutting and blood splash, were observed at 1.8% and 0.5%, respectively. Distributions of USDA YG were YG 1 (8.2%), YG 2 (30.7%), YG 3 (40.2%), YG 4 (16.6%), and YG 5 (4.3%). USDA QGs were observed at 7.5% Prime, 69.2% Choice, 16.4% Select, and 6.8% other. The results of this study provide an updated look at the current grading trends of beef carcasses in the United States to drive progress in the fed beef industry.
Keyphrases
  • quality improvement
  • physical activity
  • machine learning
  • body composition
  • optical coherence tomography
  • fatty acid
  • bone mineral density
  • deep learning
  • data analysis