Commentary: Increasing productivity, meat yield, and beef quality through genetic selection, management, and technology

摘要

The primary purpose of producing beef cattle is to convert grass, forages, and variousbyproducts, plus human-edible protein and energy, into highly nutritious and tastybeef. To accomplish this, (1) cattle enterprises must be profitable; (2) carcasses shouldyield a high percentage of meat; (3) beef should be safe, affordable, attractive, nutritious,and highly palatable; and (4) both production and processing systems must besocially and environmentally responsible. The U.S. population has doubled since 1952,but the number of cows in the U.S. is the lowest since the 1950s. At the same time, arather dramatic increase in beef production has occurred because of improved genetics,management, and technology. Yet, too many cattle breeders and/or breed associationshave failed to realize improvements in meat yield, marbling, and palatability throughgenetic selection for these traits. Consequently, a significant proportion of cattle arefed to excessive fatness with long feeding periods to attain Choice or Prime marbling.Waste fat production is very costly to the industry. An extensive review, evaluation,and interpretation of research literature, technical bulletins, trade articles, and industrytrends demonstrates a path forward through improved genetics, improved management,and optimum use of technology to improve production efficiency, meat yield,and meat quality of cattle.