Carcass Evaluation
A 700 lbs carcass (more than 58% lean meat yield) is worth $14 more than a 700 lbs A2 carcass (54% to 58% lean meat yield), and $70 more than a A3 carcass (less than 54% lean meat yield).  Identifying cattle with superior carcass will become more important as the industry demands cattle with predictable carcass traits.  This should produce an economic incentive for cattlemen to produce calves with uniform growth and superior carcass potential.

Since 1990, under the direction of Dr. John McKinnon and Reynold Bergen of the University of Saskatchewan, and Norm Kohle from Saskatchewan Agriculture, Rancher's Choice has been gathering carcass data on our bulls with the use of ultrasound technology.  Our ultrasound program has advanced from those first years of simply gathering data on our cattle to a point where we now feel confident that the data collected can be used by ourselves and customers to recognize herd sires with superior carcass traits.

Carcass traits are moderately to highly heritable.  This means that a measurement on a bull will indicate the carcass value of his progeny relative to other sires under similar management.  Real-time ultrasound allows the measurement of fat depth and ribeye area in live yearling bulls.  This means that carcass traits can be evaluated in potential herd sires, similar to average daily gain, weight per day of age, scrotal circumference, and other traits.

Rancher's Choice is leading the way in using ultrasound to help us select our own herd bulls.  It is difficult to find bulls that combine a high lean yield carcass, with enough fat cover to ensure that offspring will finish in the feed lot, and to ensure that female offspring continue to be easy fleshing, fertile mother cows.  While we think that ultrasound and carcass information is important, we must remember that it is just one tool to be used carefully.  Maintaining correctness, fertility and easy fleshing in our cattle continue to be a top priority.  Using ultrasound takes our breeding program one step further for our customers.

If you are interested in more information on our ultrasound program, please give us a call or email info@rancherschoice.net.