meat quality

Join us as we welcome Webb Dulin, a dedicated farmer from Maryland's Eastern Shore, who walks us through his transformative journey into grass-fed beef farming. Webb shares his fascinating transition from crop farming to raising cattle, offering a glimpse into the unique challenges he faced due to environmental concerns and the area's high real estate values. Listen in as he reveals the strategies that helped him adapt his family's generational farming legacy into a thriving livestock operation, against the backdrop of a region more known for its crop cultivation than cattle rearing.

Explore the nuances of regenerative agriculture with Webb as he details the ins and outs of starting a grass-fed livestock operation from scratch. Discover the careful considerations that go into selecting the right cattle breeds for grass efficiency and the importance of implementing rotational grazing systems. Webb provides a compelling narrative on the economic aspects of sustainable farming, including the wisdom of growing operations debt-free and the intricate balance between profitability and maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

In this episode, we delve into the trials and triumphs of scaling up a beef farming venture, touching on topics from land acquisition to direct-to-consumer marketing strategies. Webb offers insight into how he navigated the turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting his business model to meet new market demands. He also emphasizes the importance of embracing innovation and community engagement, and he invites fellow farmers to connect with Twin Cedar Farms, a testament to the resilience and adaptability that hallmark modern regenerative farming practices.

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In today's episode, we have James Cusack, a fifth-generation farmer and Corriedale breeder hailing from south-west Victoria.

While James grew up on a farm in Western Australia, he spent time completing a diesel mechanic apprenticeship before returning to farming in Victoria. James explains, "I was always told I had to do something else, so becoming a diesel mechanic was a practical skill to have. It's come in handy in various ways, but ultimately, my heart was in farming."

Now located in Skipton, south-west Victoria, James manages his family's farms, including the original Corriedale stud in Australia, flock number one, a lineage established in 1911. In 2012, James inherited the stud and has since dedicated himself to ramping up production and genetic improvement across both wool and meat.

James' dedication to improving his flock led him to join the Performance Corriedale Group. This group of passionate Corriedale breeders collaborates to enhance the breed's performance, particularly in meat quality and growth traits. James elaborates, "We aim to change the traditional look of the breed, improve rearing ability, and boost lamb weaning rates while maintaining the valuable wool characteristics."

To achieve this, the Performance Corriedale Group established a progeny test. This project involves joining 270 commercial ewes to 11 different sires, including Corriedales, Border Leicesters, Dorsets and maternal composites. The goal is to assess eating quality and growth traits in the offspring: "We're looking forward to processing the lambs in the new year and analysing carcass traits such as shear force and intramuscular fat."

James is optimistic about the future of Corriedales and believes that projects like these will help showcase the breed's potential. He emphasises the importance of encouraging other breeders to embrace objective measurement tools and select for desired traits.

To stay updated on the progress of this exciting project or get in touch with James Cusack, visit the Performance Corriedale Breeders' Twitter account or email James at jocusack94@gmail.com. Don't miss their field day on 1 March  2024, where you can see the progeny on display and learn more about their findings first hand.


If you have any questions about anything mentioned on this podcast, or one for our upcoming Q&A, email us at info@nextgenagri.com or leave a voice note here: https://thehub.nextgenagri.com/c/ask-your-questions-c7d0a4/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Meat discoloration during retail display is a process characterized by changes in the pigment of meat. In beef, that discoloration has been linked back to muscle type. Studies regarding the color stability of different pork muscles, however, has been more limited. 

Joining us today to talk about meat discoloration at retail is Dr. Bailey Harsh, assistant professor of meat science in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Illinois. Dr. Harsh’s research is dedicated to the development of application-focused solutions aimed at challenges in food and production agriculture and increasing consumer demand for meat products.

This episode of Feedstuffs in Focus is sponsored byTopigs Norsvin.  Swine genetics company Topigs Norsvin is renowned for its innovative approach to implementing new technologies and its continuous focus on cost-efficient and sustainable pig production.  Research, innovation, and dissemination of genetic improvements are the cornerstones of the company.  For more information, visit TopigsNorsvin.us.

For more information, on this and other topics, we invite you to visit our websites - www.Feedstuffs.com and www.NationalHogFarmer.com. While you are there be sure to check out our digital editions and our new Feedstuffs 365 platform.

Today we discuss the bigger part of how you make money on the farm - how well you feed the animals. Nutrition of your livestock is one thing that you can get right, or wrong, on a daily basis; genetics is a longer burn. With nutrition, you can see the results almost immediately. To discuss this, our guest this week is Charlotte Westwood.

Charlotte got her vet degree from Massey University and spent the first years of her career in the Waikato working mainly with dairy cattle. After a back injury, Charlotte headed off to Australia to do a PhD looking at cattle reproduction.

Now, Charlotte is a Veterinary Nutritionist at PGG Wrightson Seeds and the focus of her chat with Mark today is intramuscular fat (IMF). 

When we talk about the genetics of IMF, the words “Wagyu” and “Angus” come up, and it’s often considered to be predominantly genetics that influence levels of IMF. Charlotte explains why that’s not the case. She also explains why it’s a longer game than you might think. 

“The bizarre thing is, we think [the influence around IMF is] about the [nutrition] weeks or maybe a couple of months before the animal is processed,” explains Charlotte. But it starts much, much earlier than that. “A lot of what is happening, when the animal reaches its finished stage for processing, has actually started whilst still inside mum's tum.”

Charlotte explains what “The Marbling Window” is.

“The nutrition of mum in that last trimester can influence both the number and also the potential for the future growth of the fat cells within the muscle itself. So if mum has a hard time during the last trimester of pregnancy, that may influence the decision of stem cells - whether they’re going to turn themselves later into muscle, fat or fibre cells. There’s a drafting gate there and if we don't get it right inside mum's tum, in a small way that can influence IMF deposition.”

Charlotte runs through how fat is laid down in an animal once it’s growing, and it’s quite fascinating.

“Fat is laid down in a specific order. You've got your internal, visceral fat... then they'll move onto all subcutaneous fat around the body. When that starts to get laid down, they move on to the fat that's laid down between the muscles.... and then the final stage of fattening is when the animal's older, through maturity typically, or getting close to its mature live weight, then IMF gets laid down.”

IMF is the last to be laid down, and unfortunately it is the first to go. Charlotte explains. “When animals hit stress for any reason [...], enough to go through a short period of negative energy balance, they'll start to mobilise fat. And they'll mobilise it out in the order it was laid down. So that IMF you've lovingly sculpted… for a sake of a period of stress, the IMF is the first to peel out.”

If you’d like to hear more from Charlotte, she has her own podcast, The Rumen Room, where you can listen to episodes on the basics of nutrition, reproduction and much m

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we have an old supervisor of Marks, Graham Gardener as our guest. Graham has been involved in a huge multi species project (ALMTECH) focusing on measuring lean meat yield and eating quality for the past 7 years. You can find out more about it here:
https://www.almtechau.com/

Mark and Graham start off with the work ALMTECH have been doing on live animal measurements in terms of lean meat yield.   

"In beef, the most advanced one we started with was a 3D imaging system. The cameras would acquire images and predict things like weight, eye muscle area and fat depth. We also had a muscle scoring system. Also we could predict the whole carcass composition in terms of bone muscle and fat ratio."

Another piece of new technology Graham covers is a handheld microwave device where you can predict the fat depth in cattle. The tech has been developed from a technology applied to humans to do brain scanning, so it's very safe for humans.

Mark and Graham then go onto DEXA (Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry).

"We've done preliminary work and it looks quite good and far more accurate than any of those other systems I've just described" But the scale and cost of the machine isn't always ideal. "About half of all lambs slaughtered in Australia are measured on the DEXA scale. But, not everyone wants a DEXA system so we've been working on the handheld devices." Says Graham.

Some of these devices are being developed to be used in both live and carcass measurements. "The same microwave device, we're having a crack at that in the abattoir as well. The accuracy is promising and it might be able to meet accreditation standards." Graham explains. 

When it comes to scoring sheep, it isn't as easy as beef what with the wool distorting imaging. "Simple surface imaging cameras don't work." says Graham. "The microwave does a pretty good job at predicting fat depth, and we've had a crack at correlating it with a medical DEXA scans of live animals."

"So, lean meat yield was one half of the story, eating quality was the other half." says Graham. "There are things that measure eating quality in lamb but we cant measure them at chain speed yet."

Mark asks about any other tools in the belt for selecting for eating quality.

"There are tools that we can use for those other traits like shear force, and thats genetics." Says Graham. "It's only the really switched on breeders that are bothering to optimise their eating quality traits within their selection indices."

Mark finally delves into the cellular level of meat quality which is an absolutely fascinating conversation for those sheep nerds out there.

Have a look at the Scott Automation processing video Mark and Graham mention here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aim65529e4E

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Join Tim and Kim and Dr. Manuel Juarez of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as they discus eating invasive species such as wild boars instead of beef and the pros and cons of helicopter gunships for wild boar hunting.

Citation

Aschim, R. A., & Brook, R. K. (2019). Evaluating Cost-Effective Methods for Rapid and Repeatable National Scale Detection and Mapping of Invasive Species Spread. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 7254. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43729-y

Bulté, G., Robinson, S. A., Forbes, M. R., & Marcogliese, David. J. (2012). Is There Such Thing as a Parasite Free Lunch? The Direct and Indirect Consequences of Eating Invasive Prey. EcoHealth, 9(1), 6–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-012-0757-7

Croft, S., Franzetti, B., Gill, R., & Massei, G. (2020). Too many wild boar? Modelling fertility control and culling to reduce wild boar numbers in isolated populations. PLOS ONE, 15(9), e0238429. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238429

Curtis, P. D. (n.d.). After Decades of Suburban Deer Research and Management in the Eastern United States: Where Do We Go From Here? 18.

Fiala, M., Marveggio, D., Viganò, R., Demartini, E., Nonini, L., & Gaviglio, A. (2020). LCA and wild animals: Results from wild deer culled in a northern Italy hunting district. Journal of Cleaner Production, 244, 118667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118667

Gagnier, M., Laurion, I., & DeNicola, A. J. (2020). Control and Surveillance Operations to Prevent Chronic Wasting Disease Establishment in Free-Ranging White-Tailed Deer in Québec, Canada. Animals, 10(2), 283. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10020283

Gamborg, C., Sandøe, P., & Palmer, C. (2020). Ethical management of wildlife. Lethal versus nonlethal control of white‐tailed deer. Conservation Science and Practice, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.171

Gaviglio, A., Marescotti, M., & Demartini, E. (2018). The Local Value Chain of Hunted Red Deer Meat: A Scenario Analysis Based on a Northern Italian Case Study. Resources, 7(2), 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/resources7020034

Johann, F., Handschuh, M., Linderoth, P., Dormann, C. F., & Arnold, J. (2020). Adaptation of wild boar (Sus scrofa) activity in a human-dominated landscape. BMC Ecology, 20(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-019-0271-7

Keuling, O., Baubet, E., Duscher, A., Ebert, C., Fischer, C., Monaco, A., Podgórski, T., Prevot, C., Ronnenberg, K., Sodeikat, G., Stier, N., & Thurfjell, H. (2013). Mortality rates of wild boar Sus scrofa L. in central Europe. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 59(6), 805–814. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-013-0733-8

Koons, D. N., Rockwell, R. F., & Aubry, L. M. (2014). Effects of exploitation on an overabundant species: The lesser snow goose predicament. Journal of Animal Ecology, 83(2), 365–374. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12133

Meng, X. J., Lindsay, D. S., & Sriranganathan, N. (2009). Wild boars as sources for infectious diseases in livestock and humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1530), 2697–2707. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0086

Niewiadomska, K., Kosicka-Gębska, M., Gębski, J., Gutkowska, K., Jeżewska-Zychowicz, M., & Sułek, M. (2020). Game Meat Consumption—Conscious Choice or Just a Game? Foods, 9(10), 1357. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9101357

Nuñez, M. A., Kuebbing, S., Dimarco, R. D., & Simberloff, D. (2012). Invasive Species: To eat or not to eat, that is the question: Eating invasive species. Conservation Letters, 5(5), 334–341. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00250.x

Risch, D. R., Ringma, J., & Price, M. R. (2021). The global impact of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) on terrestrial biodiversity. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 13256. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92691-1

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Silveira de Oliveira, Ê., Ludwig da Fontoura Rodrigues, M., Machado Severo, M., Gomes dos Santos, T., & Kasper, C. B. (2020). Who’s afraid of the big bad boar? Assessing the effect of wild boar presence on the occurrence and activity patterns of other mammals. PLOS ONE, 15(7), e0235312. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235312

Summer grilling season is in full swing, even with the shadow of COVID-19 putting something of a damper on spirits and the size of backyard gatherings. For the pork industry, as consumers fire up the grill, it’s a chance for packers, processors and producers to work through a backlog of hogs created by plant closures necessitated by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In this episode, we talk with one of the industry’s leading young meat scientists about his perspective on the current state of the industry, how the industry is communicating with consumers, and – just for fun – what he’s throwing on the ol’ Weber this summer.

Dustin Boler, originally from Spencer, Ind., is a meat scientist for Topigs Norsvin known for his experience with pork quality, growth promoting technologies in meat animals, and contemporary issues facing the meat industry. He has worked with pharmaceutical companies, genetic companies, and with many major meat packers throughout his time in industry and academia. His research has focused generally on topics of meat quality, such as the improvement in tenderness when pork is cooked to 145°F, and determining changes in pork quality as pigs are marketed at increasingly heavier weights.

Boler was recently named by the American Meat Science Association as one of the recipients of the organization's Distinguished Achievement Award for 2020. He was specifically recognized for the quality and volume of his research contributions both in industry, and while on faculty at The Ohio State University and the University of Illinois.

This episode of Feedstuffs In Focus  is sponsored by Topigs Norsvin, the second largest swine genetics company in the world. Topigs Norsvin’s unique breeding program is designed to accelerate genetic progress at the customer level by creating innovative products and solutions that benefit the entire pork production chain. To get more information, visit TopigsNorsvin.us.

For more information on this and other stories, visit Feedstuffs online.
Follow Feedstuffs on Twitter @Feedstuffs, or join the conversation via Facebook.   

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kaitlyn Daza. Kaitlyn is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Animal Breeding and Genetics Group at the MSU Department of Animal Science.

You may have heard the statistic that by the year 2050, the global population is projected to hit 9 billion people, and we will need to vastly increase our food production to meet that demand and feed the world. This intimidating statistic brings challenges to many industries, including animal agriculture. One of the best methods we’ll have to increase the productivity and efficiency of food production in both plants and animals will be through advances in genetic technologies and selection techniques. Kaitlyn's work focuses on understanding the genetic regulation of complex production traits like growth, meat quality, and carcass composition phenotypes in pigs using genome-wide association analyses of microRNA expression. Current wet-lab experiments are investigating mechanisms connecting miRNA, gene, and phenotypic expression affecting these traits that are critical to the success of our Swine Industry.

While developing these skills, she has recognized a growing apprehension from the public regarding the use of novel genetic technologies in food production. Consumers grow increasingly interested in how their food is produced, but having been removed from the production process so greatly they often lack the understanding to see the benefits of modern agricultural techniques. It’s critical to our industry’s progress that consumers and regulatory officials be involved in the development and integration of genetic technologies in food production; without their support, we will continue to face issues of public perception and setbacks in technological development as an industry.

If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!