The Investigating and improving market compliance issues in beef markets in central Queensland project aimed to identify and determine the causes of animals not complying with intended market specifications.
Summary
Beef cattle producers involved with the Rolleston CQ BEEF group identified market compliance as an area which could be improved within their beef businesses. An UltrAmac® fat depth scanner was purchased to objectively measure fat depth at the P8 site before cattle were sent to the abattoir.
The overall EU compliance rate was very good at 87 percent with the main cause for non- compliance being P8 fat (6.5%) and meat colour (3.9%). The MSA grading was 60 percent. A further 22 percent which met MSA grading failed to meet abattoir specifications mainly due to dentition and Hot Standard Carcase Weight (HSCW). Management to improve compliance rates could be relatively simple. The fat scanner proved to be a very useful tool for making the decision of which cattle are ready to sell.
When: August 2009 to November 2012
Contact: Peggy Rohan
Collaborator: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
More information
To learn more about this project, please read the final report summary and download the final report (B.NBP.0600 PDS1) (PDF, 2.7 MB) from Meat & Livestock Australia.
