Retail value of wholesale meat cuts is influenced by quality and the proportion of lean, fat and bone. Wholesale cuts vary widely in value; for example, loins and ribs sell for more than rounds, rounds more than chucks, and chucks more than flanks, plates, or briskets. This value difference has prompted many attempts to find breeding and feeding systems that will increase the proportion of high-priced cuts.
Results shown here characterize the composition of carcass wholesale cuts from 14 breed combinations that were part of a cattle germ plasm evaluation program at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Neb. The program involved breeding Hereford and Angus cows by artificial insemination to Hereford, Angus, Jersey, South Devon, Limousin, Charolais and Simmental sires to produce three calf crops. Calves averaged 215-daysold at weaning and were fed an average of 243 days before slaughtering
