Moderately Thick, Judged on the Rail

Of all the carcass requirements for the Certified Angus Beef brand, muscling is the one you cannot put a tape or a scale on. A grader walks down the rail, looks at a carcass for a few seconds and makes a call. If you sell cattle for a premium, you ought to know what he is seeing and what you can do about it long before the truck shows up.

The wording

The specification USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service posted for the program calls for muscling that is moderately thick or thicker, and at least moderately wide and thick relative to length. Pull it up on the USDA AMS beef standards page and read the exact wording yourself. Other summaries just say superior muscling, which tells you nothing. The paperwork is the real thing.

What he is looking at

A good grader reads shape. A thick-muscled carcass looks full in the round, the legs bulge, and the loin looks wide and deep. The shoulder carries meat. A thin-muscled carcass looks narrow and flat, almost slab-sided, and the round tapers to a pair of skinny legs. The relative to length part is about proportion. A long, rangy carcass can carry plenty of meat and still look thin, because the width does not keep up with the length. The standard asks for width and thickness that match the frame.

The land-grant schools teach this to their judging teams. The University of Nebraska beef extension site has material if you want to sharpen your eye.

Why it matters at the plant

Thickness is money in two ways. Thick-muscled cattle usually deliver more lean per pound of carcass, which is what the plant is buying. And they cut a steak that looks right. A thin animal produces narrow steaks that look small on the plate, and a brand that sells on looks does not want them.

The catch is the other end of the spec. The brand also caps the ribeye and the weight. So you want an animal that is thick enough to clear the minimum without being a monster. A bull that throws the thickest calves in the county might cost you at the top of the ribeye range. Balance beats extreme.

What you can and cannot fix

You will not put muscle on a calf in the feedlot that the genetics never gave him. Muscling comes from the sire and dam, plus a fair start in life. A calf that was stunted early may never show what he had in him. A calf that got fat too fast may hide it. So the lever you have is selection, and the second lever is a steady plane of nutrition.

• Pick bulls with carcass data behind them, not just a good-looking picture. Check the EPDs for carcass traits and ribeye area.
• Look at the cow herd as hard as the bull. Narrow, flat cows throw narrow, flat calves no matter who the sire is.
• Keep records on your calves that go to the plant. When closeouts come back, match carcass data to sire.
• Do not chase muscle at the cost of marbling. Marbling is the number one reason cattle miss the brand, and a muscle-first bull that leaves you short on marbling costs more than he earns.

farm.fm's page on understanding bulls covers what to look for when you shop.

Handle the feeding side right

Feeding does not change muscling much, but it can make or break how the carcass looks to a grader. A steady diet with no big swings lets cattle express what they have. Under-fed cattle look thin. Overfed cattle pile on fat that can mask muscling and push backfat over the one-inch line. Aim for steady gain and a reasonable finish. If you need a refresher on cattle that stay healthy and performing, farm.fm's page on stress management for Angus cattle is a decent read, because stressed cattle stop gaining and the carcass shows it.

Reading your own cattle before they ship

You can train your eye on your own cattle. Stand behind a pen of steers and look at the round. Does it bulge out wide, or do the legs seem to come together like a pair of pants on a clothesline? Walk to the side and check the loin for width and the shoulder for depth. Then compare the best and the worst cattle in the pen and note what differs. Do that at weaning, again at the start of finishing and again before shipping, and you will learn which calves have what the grader wants.

When the carcass data comes back, put it beside your notes. If the cattle you rated thin were the ones that missed on muscling, your eye is working and you can use it at the next sale to pick bulls. If the data surprises you, adjust. Either way, you are building a record that no bull salesman can talk you out of. That record, kept over a few years, is worth more than any one sale-day impression.

The short version

Muscling is a shape call made by a trained eye, written down in plain words in the standard. You cannot fake it and you cannot feed it in late. Breed for it, balance it against ribeye size and marbling, and keep the feed steady. For more help finding genetics, equipment and services, the agriculture directory is a handy place to start, and the program details are at certifiedangusbeef.com.

This site is independent and not affiliated with the American Angus Association or Certified Angus Beef LLC. Specs change, so check current official documents before you market cattle.