ollie?":v8jogvx7 said:
Actually I'm having a wonderful morning. Just posting a point of view to produce some discussion. Do you remember this post?
Frankie":v8jogvx7 said:
Until everyone has every animal tested for the tenderness gene or the packer puts a tenderness test into his grading system, the best way to produce profitable tender beef is to use a bull with a good marbling EPD.
Why is it more important to use a bull with a good marbling epd when actual data available on most sale bulls?
No, I don't remember, but I believe it's true. We're dealing with two things here. #1 being profit. As far as I know, packers don't pay more for tender beef. They do pay more for marbled meat. While the research only shows about a 10% correlation between tenderness and marbling, I know some meat scientists who think it's considerably higher. And there's research showing the higher the quality grade, the less likely a cut of meat will be tough.
And #2 is EPDs. An EPD, at least in the Angus breed, is not just an indicator of the beeding animal's data. His/her data is fed into the system, compared and combined with thousands of other bits of data to produce EPDs. A well fed bull with a mediocre marbling EPD might scan a higher IMF score than a grass fed bull with a high marbling EPD. But the bull with the higher EPD would be most likely to produce higher marbling calves.