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Beef Checkoff-Funded Study Explores Beef Carcass Fabrication in Central and South America
Traditional beef carcass fabrication in the United States has restricted the exploration of innovative techniques that might add to the number of more tender cuts as well as provide solutions to some of the challenges of increased carcass weights. In other countries, carcass fabrication procedures are diverse and some countries, in particular, have adopted techniques that might be applicable and beneficial to the U.S. domestic and export markets.
The adoption of the beef value cuts as a result of the checkoff-funded muscle profiling project suggests the industry currently is open to change. An industry task force, funded by The Beef Checkoff, convened in 2006 at the University of Nebraska and determined there is a clear need to explore fabrication strategies as a way to add value and provide consumer-friendly products. They concluded that some of the unique cutting strategies in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Costa Rica may offer benefits to the U.S. industry. The task force identified the following potential advantages: ergonomic improvement, more efficient chilling, increased efficiency in handling fat, better energy efficiency, increased opportunities to end users, potential for increased yield, greater value for certain muscles, more options during fabrication, and greater accuracy with break points with a knife versus a clipper.
Given these possible beneficial outcomes for the U.S. industry, The Beef Checkoff launched a comprehensive initiative to evaluate fabrication methods in Central and South America. The scope of this initiative was expected to include the following parameters:
• Muscles are arranged in layers and consideration should be given to removing them in layers.
• Where possible, muscles should be removed intact rather than in pieces.
• Muscles vary in tenderness from end to end and tenderness maps should be used to determine the best place to cut muscles when that is necessary or desirable.
• Technologies exist to improve efficiency, including high voltage electrical stimulation.
• In several cases, pre-boning and cutting seams between muscles prior to chilling can be beneficial.
The goal was to identify and communicate easy strategies to implement in the United States. To meet this goal, a team of experts made trips to Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay with the following criteria in mind:
• Incorporate muscle tenderness mapping.
• Record and report yields and dimensions.
• Investigate rules of nomenclature if needed.
• Evaluate the appropriate place to make muscle breaks.
• Compare current and future uses of muscles and trim.
• Identify and test strategies to counteract potential negative consequences of pre-rigor carcass cutting and pre-fabrication.
• Estimate the economic benefits of the innovative fabrication strategies.
After visits to meat processing and fabrication facilities as well as retail operations, the team identified two primary changes that could be implemented in the U.S. industry with minimal disruption to existing procedures:
1. Dropping the aitch bone before removing the sirloin from the round. Doing so allows for the sirloin cap to be cut longer, keeping together similar portions of a muscle and retaining the sirloin nomenclature (seen in Mexico and Costa Rica).
The following eight photographs illustrate cutting strategies to facilitate production of a larger sirloin cap. The general process involves exposure and removal of the aitch bone before the sirloin/round separation occurs, allowing a knife cut to define the size of the sirloin cap. Research shows this portion of the biceps femoris muscle is equivalent in tenderness to the portion over the sirloin, meaning there is justification to make the break at a point which results in a larger sirloin cap. The added value results from the $1.00 per pound higher value of the sirloin cap over the round. The challenge is that if the piece is removed from the round after the sirloin/round break, the extra muscle must be labeled as coming from the round instead of the sirloin.
  
Exposing the aitch bone Dropping the aitch bone Removing the sirloin cap from the outside round
  
Using the weight of inside Pre-cutting the sirloin cap A larger sirloin cap
round to help with aitch bone
 
The whole sirloin cap Location of the sirloin cap
2. Cutting the ribeye roll and the chuck eye roll in one continuous
piece. The anterior portion to this cut represents the roast portion
of the current chuck eye roll and could be sold at retail for roast
application. The continuous piece, tentatively called a forequarter
log, is entirely steak-able. This concept was positively received by a
retailer viewing a prototype.
The following ten photographs illustrate a proposed concept of a
forequarter log. Generally, the concept proposes that the ribeye roll
and the chuck eye roll be removed to the third rib in one piece.
  
Pre-cutting bones for a FQ log Removal of the forearm - thoracic limb Exposure of serratus ventralis
upon removal of thoracic limb
  
Capturing the rib cap Removal of the forequarter log Removal of the forequarter log
 
The forequarter log The complete serratus ventralis
  Marking the lifter meat for capture prior Removing the thoracic limb without
to removal of the thoracic limb disrupting the lifter meat
A third possible application to consider is venting, or pre-cutting
between muscle seams while the carcass is still hot. This makes
fabrication easier and aids in more efficient cooling. Venting should
be further researched for many of the seams in the round and a few in
the chuck.
The photographs below illustrate the venting concept.
  
Venting of the eye of round Venting of the bottom round Venting of the shoulder clod
Overall, the fabrication study has provided the US with great opportunity for improving margins and efficiency. Cutting tests were conducted to determine the yield of muscles with the
new fabrication system. Per animal, the forequarter log weighs
approximately 35 pounds and the sirloin cap, about seven pounds.
Though actual returns would vary, the potential net gain is estimated
to be approximately $45 per head for the forequarter log and $17 per
head for the sirloin cap. For more information on this study, please contact Jim Ethridge, Director of New Product Industry Partnerships at jethridge@beef.org.
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