De-stress cattle to keep dark cutting beef at bay

Dark cutting beef has a higher pH than normal beef. Normal beef. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Plan now to avoid

BY PHIL BASS University of Idaho assistant professor-meat science

It’s January, there’s snow on the ground, and many Idaho cattle producers are thinking about the next calf crop making its appearance soon. For those on the other end of the cattle life cycle, in the feeding world, this is actually a great time to begin considering the upcoming spring season.

Although it’s a few months away, spring is a time of year that we meatheads expect to see an uptick in a beef carcass quality defect that, albeit a small percentage, is a huge hit to producer bottom lines: dark cutting beef. Let’s discuss what it is; why it occurs; and how we can attempt to manage the condition in our finished beef cattle.

Dark cutting beef is a stress-induced carcass defect that occurs in a small percentage of fed beef cattle, but it’s still significant enough that we should remain aware of it and do our best to prevent the condition.

dark cutting beef Breeding for docility and managing your cattle’s stress are vital ways to ensure great beef In an average year, the United States will harvest around 27 million head of fed beef steers and heifers. According to the 2016 National Beef Quality Audit, the monthly percentage of dark cutting beef carcasses ranged between 0.33% and 0.74%. If all we experienced was the low end of the incidence rate, that is still over 800,000 head of cattle each year. According to USDA-reported pricing, the value discount assigned to dark cutting beef carcasses is on

this spring CONTINUED, PAGE 38

average around $35/cwt; on a 900 lb. carcass, that would be a $315 missed opportunity. That would be a major hit to a beef carcass, and it’s all due to the color of the lean muscle.

HOW WE GET TO DARK CUTTING

Dark coloring in the muscle, which fails to “bloom” to a normal cherry red, is difficult to sell to consumers because it doesn’t look palatable. Furthermore, dark cutting beef has a tendency to have flavor and tenderness issues, which also contribute to the devaluing of the carcass. Truly, it’s a condition that we in the beef industry desire to avoid.

So why does dark cutting occur? As mentioned, it’s a stress-induced quality defect. When an animal is stressed, usually within about a week prior to harvest, but sometimes even within a day, the animal uses up what little sugars are stored in the muscle, which could take up to a week to replace. The sugars in the muscle are required to decrease the pH of the muscle from the living muscle pH of around 7.0 to normal meat pH of around 5.5. This is due to lactic acid production, and accumulation, after the animal is harvested.

The muscle requires the normal sugar stores to produce lactic acid at harvest; however, if the sugar stores are lacking, then the pH does not decline after harvest, resulting in a higher-than-normal pH in the muscle. This higher-than-normal pH binds water so tightly that light does not reflect well

Cold days and wet weather in the spring, and hot days with cold nights in the fall, can cause a physical stress on our cattle, which overwhelmingly live outside and are at the mercy of the elements.

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off the meat, resulting in a dark color that our eyes see.

Also, because of the higher-than- normal pH, the meat is more prone to spoilage. All of this results in a less-than-desirable final product that is difficult to sell and will likely have taste implications.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO AVOID THIS CONDITION?

So how can we as beef producers avoid the dark cutting condition? First, it will start with the cow-calf operator. Breeding for docility is a great way to prevent animals from overreacting to stressful events. U.S. cattle producers have many reasons to breed for docility, and preventing dark cutting carcasses is yet another reason to focus on this trait.

Another way of managing cattle in a way to minimize stress-induced quality defects is to use good animal handling and transportation techniques. Beef Quality Assurance courses can help producers learn the best way to work livestock with the least amount of stress on the animal (and operator), which ultimately will result in a better final product.

These are ideas that we can manage, but what about things that we can’t control?

Weather patterns and seasonal environmental changes are often the biggest contributing factors to the incidence of dark cutting beef carcasses. That’s why we see an uptick of dark cutting in packing houses during the spring, and even more so the fall. Cold days and wet weather in the spring, and hot days with cold nights in the fall, can cause a physical stress on our cattle, which overwhelmingly live outside and are at the mercy of the elements.

Although we can’t control the weather, we can do our best to prevent the stress of the animals from the breeding, handling and nutrition side. If we know that a weather system is coming in the spring or fall, be sure that the herd you are shipping for harvest is at the best health it can be and on a high plane of nutrition. If you can select your cattle from known breeders with docility traits, it may be yet another bit of insurance if you’re a cattle finisher.

Dark cutting beef is unlikely to go away completely from our meat mix. However, the industry has made tremendous improvements over the past two decades and greatly decreased the incidence rate of dark cutting. If we continue to produce high-quality beef that consumers want, we’ll continue to maintain the strong pull-through demand of the best protein out there.

GO BEEF!

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