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GRASS FED - too BIG or too LITTLE?
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<blockquote data-quote="Brandonm2" data-source="post: 336780" data-attributes="member: 2095"><p>The feedlots supposedly do a decent job (more or less) at estimating avg fat cover in a pen. What they CLAIM they are running into is that too many of these carcasses aren't hitting the amount of muscle that an animal that size is supposed too have so it is raising the yield grade (particularly in heifers). I don't think they encounter too many really thick yield grade 4s. With ultrasound, you can harvest them at a desired backfat thickness if you will do the work; but there is nothing the feedlots can do about putting muscle into a calf that doesn't have any. I am not making any predictions on whether dropping frame size will affect avg quality grade. There are too many other variables. 7% of the cattle graded today are YG4s and .3% are YG5s. This is up from 3% and .2% in 1975. I don't think it is coincidental at all that avg carcass weight has increased substantially. Were cattle thicker in 1975???? I don't really know; but the research seems too indicate that they graded better (quality) and were less likely to be fat toads than today's herd. </p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.bifconference.com/bif2006/pdfs/Morgan.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.bifconference.com/bif2006/pdfs/Morgan.pdf</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Brandonm2, post: 336780, member: 2095"] The feedlots supposedly do a decent job (more or less) at estimating avg fat cover in a pen. What they CLAIM they are running into is that too many of these carcasses aren't hitting the amount of muscle that an animal that size is supposed too have so it is raising the yield grade (particularly in heifers). I don't think they encounter too many really thick yield grade 4s. With ultrasound, you can harvest them at a desired backfat thickness if you will do the work; but there is nothing the feedlots can do about putting muscle into a calf that doesn't have any. I am not making any predictions on whether dropping frame size will affect avg quality grade. There are too many other variables. 7% of the cattle graded today are YG4s and .3% are YG5s. This is up from 3% and .2% in 1975. I don't think it is coincidental at all that avg carcass weight has increased substantially. Were cattle thicker in 1975???? I don't really know; but the research seems too indicate that they graded better (quality) and were less likely to be fat toads than today's herd. [url=http://www.bifconference.com/bif2006/pdfs/Morgan.pdf]http://www.bifconference.com/bif2006/pdfs/Morgan.pdf[/url] [/QUOTE]
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GRASS FED - too BIG or too LITTLE?
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