Category Archives: Quality and Consistency

October, the start of dark cutting beef season

With the arrival of October each year, at least in North America, the incidence rate for dark cutting beef begins to increase. Dark cutting beef is the result of long-term stress where cattle deplete glycogen stores in the muscle before slaughter resulting in less lactic acid being produced in the post-mortem muscle that would normally produce the bright cherry-red beef color in the lean. As the name implies, the lean is darker in color because it has a higher pH than normal beef. While there are many factors… Read More →

Scientific articles from National Beef Quality Audit – 2016

The National Beef Quality Audit – 2016 marks the 25th year since the original National Beef Quality Audit was conducted and represents the opportunity for the beef industry to assess factors that impact the quality, quantity, and value of cattle, carcasses, and by-products. The audit is funded by the Beef Checkoff and is managed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association through the Beef Quality Assurance program. These are the scientific articles from this past audit, and they are open access so they are available to the public without… Read More →

GSF/McDonald’s Specialized Beef 101 at Texas A&M

At the request of Golden State Foods, Texas A&M Department of Animal Science and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Hosted a specialized Beef 101 program for members of the McDonald’s Corporation and their beef suppliers on August 15-17.  Dr. Wayne Morgan, President of Protein Products for Golden State Foods collaborated with Dr. Davey Griffin, professor and Extension Meat Specialist to coordinate the event with a schedule designed to help participants get a snapshot of the beef industry from start to finish. Participants began the program at the TAMU Beef Center… Read More →

National Beef Quality Audit – 2016 rolled out at Cattle Industry Summer Meeting

The findings of the National Beef Quality Audit – 2016, steer and heifer component, were released at the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting on July 13, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. Speakers included Keith Belk, Colorado State University, Deb VanOverbeke, Oklahoma State University, Clay Eastwood, Texas A&M University, and Jeff Savell, Texas A&M University. The session was moderated by Josh White, Executive Director, Producer Education, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Two documents were released after the session: an executive summary and a four-page summary. These are available from these links:… Read More →

Aggie faculty contribute to Lawrie’s Meat Science, 8th edition

Three faculty members in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University provided chapters to the newly revised, Lawrie’s Meat Science, Eighth edition. Rhonda Miller, Kerri Gehring, and Jeff Savell each wrote chapters working with Dr. Fidel Toldrá, the editor of this edition, to complete the publication process. Professor Ralston Lawrie was a world-renown meat scientist and wrote multiple editions of “Meat Science” during his life. The first edition was published in 1966, and eventually editions were published in at least Spanish, German, Japanese, and Russian languages…. Read More →

Boykin, Eastwood, and Harris present at National Beef Quality Audit workshop

Texas A&M University graduate students, Courtney Boykin, Clay Eastwood, and McKensie Harris, presented the initial findings of their research at the National Beef Quality Audit 2016 Strategy Workshop, which was held December 13-15, 2016 at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association offices in Centennial, Colorado. This is the 25th anniversary of the first National Beef Quality Audit, and the strategy workshop is a key component of the audit where representatives from the beef industry, trade associations, and government agencies come together to develop the strategies that will be used… Read More →

2015/2016 National Beef Tenderness Survey executive summary

The Executive Summary of the latest National Beef Tenderness Survey is now available at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Beef Research website (www.beefresearch.org). This survey has been conducted about every five years since the early 1990s, and the findings this year show that the palatability of beef is still performing well compared to the last two surveys. The survey was led by meat scientists in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University with collaboration from meat scientists from Texas Tech University, University of Florida, Oklahoma State… Read More →

Mehall, Eastwood present at International Congress of Meat Science and Technology in France

Lindsey Mehall and Clay Eastwood, Ph.D. students in the Department of Animal Science, presented their research work at the 61st International Congress of Meat Science and Technology (ICoMST) in Clermont-Ferrand, France, August 23-28, 2015. The ICoMST had over 400 participants from over 40 countries in attendance. Faculty members, Wes Osburn and Jeff Savell, also participated in the conference. Here are the two papers presented: Eastwood, L. C., A. N. Arnold, R. K. Miller, K. B. Gehring, and J. W. Savell. 2015. Quality and palatability of foodservice beef aged… Read More →

Hannah Laird receives SMA Foundation Graduate Scholarship

Hannah Laird, Meat Science graduate student from Dickinson, Texas, received this year’s SMA Foundation graduate scholarship, which was presented to her at the 59th Annual Southwest Meat Association Convention held at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, July 22-25, 2015. Hannah is working in the sensory analysis area, and has an undergraduate degree from Baylor University.

Beef 706 held at Sul Ross State University, June 29-30, 2015

A Beef 706 program was conducted at Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas, June 29-30, 2015. About 20 cattle producers, primarily from the Far West Texas region, participated in the program. Beef 706 is sponsored by the Texas Beef Council as a way to increase the knowledge of the end-products of beef production for farmers, ranchers, and other key people involved in the Texas beef business. Instructors for this Beef 706 program were Dan Hale, Davey Griffin, Bruce Carpenter, and Clay Eastwood from the Department of Animal Science,… Read More →