Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
9/15/99
Contacts:
Daryl Strohbehn, Iowa Beef Center, (515) 294-0847, stroh@iastate.edu
John Lawrence, Iowa Beef Center, ((515) 294-1058, jdlaw@iastate.edu
Tracy S. Petersen, Iowa Beef Center, (515) 294-9172,
tracyp@iastate.edu
Iowa Beef Tenderness Project Entry Deadline Announced
AMES, Iowa -- Entries will be accepted until Nov. 1 for the Iowa Beef Tenderness Project. Sponsored by the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University, the tenderness project is designed to help Iowa producers identify sires most likely to produce the best beef.
"This tenderness project is being conducted to assist Iowa cattle producers in evaluating and identifying sires that have the genetic ability to produce progeny with highly desirable eating characteristics," said John Lawrence, IBC director. "This central test of progeny from producers' good sires should help position Iowa seedstock in a leadership role for the future."
The Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity (TCSCF) Board of Directors is a partner in the project.
"We are very pleased that the Tri-County group will be lending their expertise in testing these steers and heifers," said Daryl Strohbehn, extension beef specialist with the IBC. "During the last several years, this group has fed and carcass-evaluated more than 2,000 head each year in their cooperating feedlots, and that consistency of getting the job done is extremely important to this tenderness project."
Iowa producers who participate in the two-year tenderness project will enroll groups of 10 to 15 head of steer and heifer calves from one sire. The cattle will be placed in a central test site for feeding and total carcass evaluation, Strohbehn said, "because central testing equalizes the environmental differences between producer calving locations and allows for harvesting the cattle at the optimum end-point weight."
To complete the tenderness evaluation, rib slices will be removed from each carcass and taken to the ISU Meats Laboratory. Each of the steaks will be broiled to the same degree of internal doneness, multiple core sampled and evaluated for tenderness using the Warner-Bratzler shear technique.
In addition to tenderness, each progeny's gain test and complete carcass information -- including ribeye area, backfat, internal fat, yield grade, marbling score and final quality grade -- will be collected and reported.
"Once we evaluate tenderness at the ISU Meat Laboratory on all progeny, a computerized genetic evaluation will be done and a report published so all producers can use that information and put the genetics of their choice to work in their breeding program," Lawrence said.
The cost of the program is $40 per progeny animal evaluated plus normal custom feeding costs. Entry forms and additional information are available from the Iowa Beef Center at (515) 294-BEEF; 468F Heady Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011; www.ibc.iastate.edu (click on the "special projects" button).
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