Beef grading

SueH · Post by **SueH** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:49 pm

We have just had our first animal go off to the abbatoir, he was a 27 month non short steer that should have gone a couple of months back in reality. I was quite pleased with him, thinking he was well grown etc and as we are selling him to a local butcher thought we would do quite well. However, on phoning the abbatoir with regards to weight etc, were told he killed out at 202kg and was graded at -03. Not sure whether weight was average, but not too happy about grading and have asked them to re-grade with the fact he is Dexter in mind. Any advice or experience in this area would be appreciated.

Post by **Mark Bowles** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:20 pm

Your -O3 indicates he was light on confirmation but not poor and the fat was pretty good, as in not over fat. Not many dexters get an "R" for confirmation, usually +O or -O. I had an -O last year from Sargents at Uttoxeter who do the Crossgar slaughtering and grading, they are used to dexter grading but sometimes the odd one goes wrong, i thought he was worth a +O.
Your weight at 202kg is a nice size for a non-short, 200kg is just about what you would want from a non-short.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:05 pm

You can't leave beasts much longer than 27 months, or you wouldn't want to really, so unless it's breeding, it's the grazing or feed or something wrong like worms or fluke.

Maybe yours needed better feed/forage/more energy? Also, it's not a good time, quite a few of ours have gone backwards in the freezing temperatures even though they are inside, but the heifers have kept a better shape than the steers, it's really noticeable.

A lot of people don't attempt to finish in the winter and just try to maintain condition. We don't any more, all are summer finished now. Soon as they go out on good grass, they blossom.

We've just done two at the same grade as yours Sue, we were disappointed but the beef is yummy. But we weren't supplying a butcher so it didn't affect us really. They weren't ready but I couldn;t wait any longer.

Purely out of interest, we went to a seminar the other day run by ASDA, and they published that the best carcasses they had in their experiments were not the top grades. The best ones were with the best cuts. So an R grade isn't necessarily "better" than an O grade, and also and R can be better than both E and U, and in their experiment an R came out on top! Grading is an old tool that is out of date, but it's all we've got at the moment.

domsmith · Post by **domsmith** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:52 pm

What did you expect? I doubt many people will get a better than o+ grade anyway.
all mine come back O +or-. you are better with a 4 grading for fat, the flavour is improved with the fat cover.

your weight looks right, Dexter weights vary so much.

Your butcher will be getting good meat, its difficult to supply regular and consistant grades through out the year. fat cover at this time is difficult, especially off grass.

dominic

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:11 am

Speaking personally, I wouldn't send a -O3 to a butcher Dominic....OK if you're selling the beef yourself or for the freezer.

It depends on the butcher I suppose. Without being ridiculous, ours cannot have enough fat. -O3 would result in a warning, and did once, hence from then onwards I finish the animals, then leave them another 6-8 weeks, then send them.

Be interesting to see what price you get Sue?

domsmith · Post by **domsmith** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:55 pm

Is it the -o or the 3 that would upset your butcher Clive?

just interested to know.

d

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:44 pm

Pass dom. In the past I did send in an animal that I guess would be abut that grade, but I can't be sure, and we had a warning saying it was just too lean, so both I suppose.

The butcher who graded our two steers at -O3 just said they weren't ready, but he wasn't buying them off us, they were going into the freezer so I didn't ask any more. They were nice animals but too young straight off grass. Still nice beef though.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1295545601

domsmith · Post by **domsmith** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:24 pm

you would think the conformation, is whats its born with.
it is only fat cover you can change?

the animals have their genetic make up, and as long as its fit, healthy and well fed, you cannot change that muscle shape, so will the grade not be the same whenever the beast is slaughtered?

we have a charlie * dexter in at the moment. O3.
shows you how little it means, because the meat yield will be significantly higher than on the dexter 03.
i am not one for keeping accurate records, but it feels like around 15-30% more meat weight off a 200kg carcass.
topside, silverside, sirloin all significantly bigger than the norm we are used to.
i am not saying its a good thing as quality is what we want, just a point based on the grading and previous gradings

dom

Pennielea · Post by **Pennielea** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:05 pm

There is no -O grade. It is either O+ or O-. Sometimes these gradings can be complicated enough without getting the terminology wrong. See the summer Bulletin for the details.
O-3 is a good commercial animal and what is wanted for the beef scheme.

May I ask Dom what is a 'charlie *' dexter

Ian

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:17 am

Charlie = Charolais Ian. Our abattoir has a computerised system and they put the plus after but the minus before!!! It gives you a grading within a day of slaughter by email plus a load of other info.

I agree dom that the conformation can be and often is genetic, but it can also be just being undernourished surely? Feed / nutrition creates muscle as well as fat (except on me :D). Yes, if you push a Dexter all you'll get is fat, but if you just keep it well fed all it's life, you get more muscle (and fat especially later).

Re the genetics, I normally get one or two a year that are hard to finish because they were born slim, and there's nothing you can do to get them right. As a matter of interest they are usually red, and I've heard other people say that as well.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1295597912

domsmith · Post by **domsmith** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 7:50 pm

Our abattoir grades with - or + first -o or +o.

interesting stuff

charlie is charolais, wished it was a sentimental!!

off to Lyon tomorrow, read a restaurant review and advertised that all the meat was guaranteed charolais!!
put me right off :p

d

Post by **Mark Bowles** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:31 pm

Just got back a 27.5 month old short steer that graded at R3 with a deadweight of 163kg, i was pleased with that, my first "R" grade since i have had them graded.

AlisonKirk · Post by **AlisonKirk** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 4:24 pm

Hi Mark

Decent d/w from a short leg. Out of interest, do you know the weight of actual beef you will be able to sell? Our meat to sell is approx 64/65% of the d/w.

Regards

Alison
Boram Dexters

Post by **Mark Bowles** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:35 am

Sorry Alison,we have eaten some sold some and given some away. Your percentages seem high, i thought 55/56% was about average, i have never worked my percentages out .

AlisonKirk · Post by **AlisonKirk** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 2:23 pm

Mark - We're interested in how much actual meat we have to sell to the chef. We obtain the deadweight figures from the abattoir and then the actual beef to be delivered is weighed at the abattoir prior to collection. Collected beef on Friday for a business school - total weight 106.66kgs. This was from a heifer which was approx 164kgs total d/w = 65% meat to sell from d/w. It's not always exact, but not far off, and does vary between 63-65%. This exercise does help when I'm promoting the beef to a new customer for costings, etc. The abattoir put the weights of each cut on the boxes, so again when promoting the beef I can advise chefs approx weight of say fillet, sirloin or whatever will be. They do ask when I speak to them.

We monitor our management very carefully and over the past year or two have improved the weight of beef to sell without the need for concentrates.

Our Dexters are not graded. We sell to a butcher ungraded and he keeps coming back, so we must be getting something right.

Hope this info is useful.

Alison
Boram Dexters