Marbling And Age Of Cattle

Marbling can be influenced by selective breeding.

Marbling and age of cattle.

Marbling can also be influenced by time on feed. These include subcutaneous fat for example rib and rump fat intra muscular fat marbling and inter muscular fat which is positioned between muscles. In terms of chronological age the buttons begin to ossify at 30 months of age. These cattle were fed to age constant average basis of 457 d and the means for carcass weight fat thickness and marbling score are presented in table 1.

Murray grey cattle grazing at autumn s harvest in new york. Increased marbling is associated with improved eating quality through juiciness and flavour. The age of cattle is important. When an animal is too young it won t display marbling.

Calves were weaned at seven months of age and fed as calves. Carcasses with lower yields less marbling cattle over 30 months of age over and under weight carcasses due to genetics and over and underfeeding cattle receive discounts. The shift to primarily black angus in the late 1970s came about in part because black angus cattle marble extremely well. The canadian packing industry will generally discount canada 3 y3 carcasses.

Veal or young cattle develop intramuscular fat last after subcutaneous fat kidney pelvic and heart fat and intermuscular fat. Cattle breeds such as angus herefords murray grey shorthorns and wagyu also british white cattle and dairy breeds such as the jersey holstein friesian and braunvieh have higher marbling scores on average versus other cattle such as simmentals charolais or chianina. Older animals aren t ideal either. Since black angus as a breed features finely textured marbling it s a tried and true beautifully marbled beef.

In contrast scotch beef is predominantly grass fed and free ranging. Well raised which means that the cattle are raised in a healthy low stress environment. Asian cattle however are fed for much longer periods of time close to three years in fact where u s. Carcasses with more marbling and higher yield grades qualify for higher prices.

Marbling was significantly higher for purebred angus than purebred hereford steers and the angus steers were also fatter. The marbling is further encouraged by confining the animals to small pens and feeding them an energy dense diet. Carcasses are stratified into five maturity groups based on the estimated age of the live animal. Best quality which means here that the steak is either graded as usda prime grade or is its equivalent in terms of the cattle s age and its marbling quality and that it is dry aged for a substantial period of time.

There are three main types of fat depots in beef cattle carcases.