Fat is the icing on the carcass cake. An even cover of 3-10mm of subcutaneous (under the skin) fat around a carcass keeps things classy. It protects the underlying meat while the carcass is hanging and chilling, keeping it tender and juicy. It takes a steady hand to nail the finishing touches though, if you under- or over-ice your cake then you can expect penalties from your meat processor.

Like most things, cattle-icing is easier when you have the right genetics. The B+LNZ Beef Progeny Test has checked the icing level on over 4,500 cattle so far. Rib fat depth has been estimated via ultrasound on progeny at 18-months old and then physically measured by carcass graders (on progeny that are slaughtered).

B+LNZ geneticists are happy to report there is a very strong correlation between ultrasound rib fat depth in living cattle and carcass rib fat depth at slaughter. Ninety-four percent of the genetic variation in carcass rib fat depth was already captured in the ultrasound measurement of the live animal.

Mwah, chef’s kiss! Ultrasound is a very good predictor of subcutaneous fat levels in the carcass. If you want to dial up or down your icing level you can have confidence in the rib fat depth EBVs.