Dark Cutters and Blood Splash

You can raise a steer that marbles, weighs right and fits the box, and still lose him to a defect that has nothing to do with genetics. Two of them are on the Certified Angus Beef list: dark cutters and capillary rupture, which most folks call blood splash. The brand lists them as "no dark cutters" and "practically free of capillary rupture" among its ten specs, as set out in the Angus Association's Angus Journal.

I could not find a reliable number on how many carcasses these two cost the industry, so I will not make one up. What I can give you is what causes them and what you can control. Specs change, so check current ones. This site is not connected to the brand or the Association. For trucking, vet and supply help near you, there is a list at agriculture.directory.

Dark cutters

A dark cutter is a carcass with lean that runs dark and dry. According to University of Florida extension, the cause is a change in muscle metabolism tied to long-term stress before slaughter, and heat stress, for one, may increase it. They can be tender or tough, nobody can say ahead of time, and shoppers do not like the color. That last part is what costs you.

Think of a steer's muscle as a fuel tank. A calm, rested animal goes to the plant with the tank full. One that has been sorted, fought, hauled hot and left standing without water shows up near empty. That drains the sugar the muscle needs to firm up and brighten after slaughter, and you get a dark cutter. You cannot see it on the hoof. You see it on the rail.

Blood splash

Capillary rupture is the little spots of blood in the muscle. The same extension publication ties it to the stunning process at slaughter and says it does not hurt eating quality but gets excluded from certified programs because of the look (UF/IFAS). That one is mostly at the plant. You do not have much say in it other than picking a packer with a good record.

What you can control

Before loading

Do not sort and push cattle hard the morning of shipping. Do the sorting the day before when you can.
Keep feed and water available right up to loading.
Do not mix strange groups at the last minute. Cattle that have to sort out a pecking order burn through energy.

On the road

Load at a sensible density. Overcrowded trailers cause more stress and more injuries. Our piece on hauling cattle safely goes through loading and trailer setup.
Haul in the cool part of the day in hot weather.
Keep the trip as short and direct as you can. Do not leave a loaded trailer sitting in the sun.

At the pens

Use quiet handling. Hot shots and yelling get you nothing but trouble. The BQA program at bqa.org has training worth taking.
Good facilities help. Our guide on working cattle with chute and pen basics covers layout.

Farm.fm has a page on stress management for Angus cattle that backs up the same approach.

The weather factor

Heat is the one most guys underestimate. A steer that has been fine all summer on pasture and in the pen can run into trouble on the one hot, humid day you pick to haul. If the forecast is rough, move the shipping date, ship earlier in the morning, or at least make sure the trailer has airflow and the cattle have been watered. A day's delay costs you some feed. A dark cutter costs you the premium on the whole animal and sometimes a discount on top.

Cold and wet can cause trouble too. Cattle that arrive soaked, muddy and chilled have burned energy just staying warm. Mud on the hide is also a clean-hide issue at the plant. Keep pens drained and give cattle a dry place to stand in the last day or two before shipping.

Who is in the pen

Bulls and steers mixed together, or cattle from different pens, will mount and fight. That is stress, and it is tiring. Keep groups together from the pen to the trailer to the plant whenever you can. If you buy cattle from several sources, give them time to settle before you ship them again. You will not find a spec for it, but anybody who has hauled cattle knows that calm groups arrive in better shape.

Keep records on it

Ask your packer or feeder to flag defects on the closeout sheet. If a certain load, a certain hauler or a certain week of the year shows up again and again, you have a pattern you can fix. If it shows up scattered with no pattern, it is probably the plant or luck, and you do not need to lose sleep.

Bottom line

Marbling gets the headlines, but a carcass lost to a dark cutter or blood splash costs as much as one lost to anything else. You control stress and hauling. You mostly do not control the plant. Do the first part right. For official grading standards, see USDA's beef page.