Carcass show last step for 4-H market projects
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Last week, 4-H club members washed and brushed and polished their steers, lambs and pigs so they’d look their best in market and showmanship classes and at the market sale.
This week it was time to view the animals in carcass form, since 4-H market animal projects go from the initial weigh-in all the way through carcass evaluation.
4-H market animal exhibitors gathered at White’s Meats on Aug. 11 at 4:30 p.m. where Montana State University County Extension Agent Jack Stivers explained the grading process for carcasses.
Mike Finnegan, Montana Department of Livestock, did the grading, Stivers said. Finnegan is also a state meat processing plant inspector.
Stivers said Finnegan looked at different aspects of the carcass and entered the data into a formula to measure for yield grade and determine quality grade. Factors such as maturity, color of lean meat and amount and distribution of marbling were part of the data.
As far as maturity, the Lake County Fair animals were all A, which means they were all under 24 months of age.
Finnegan also looked at dressing percentage. Steers, once the hide, hooves and other inedible parts are removed, dress at approximately 62 percent. That’s for a carcass on the rack that still has bone. As an example, Stivers said a steer that weighs 1,000 pounds would dress out to about 600 pounds and then the amount of cut and wrapped meat to go in the freezer would be about 400 pounds. Hogs yield 70 percent, and lambs dress out at less than 50 to 52 percent.
One of the sources Finnegan used to determine quality grade of a carcass was marbling, intramuscular fat that shows up as white flecks in the rib eye.
“The more marbling the better,” Stivers said, explaining that less marbling equals less tenderness and the taste drops.
Quality grades for market animals are: prime, choice, select, standard, utility and cutter. 4-H club members aim for select or higher.
4-H club members who raised the top five steers, lambs and hogs according to carcass were:
Steers
1. Michaela Blevins
2. Stetson Stipe
3. Katie Smith
4. Kelsey Geldrich
5. Rebecca Lake
Swine
1. Micah McClure
2. Dillon Delaney
3. Brooklyn Foust
4. Sienna Brown
5. Casadi Wunderlich
Lambs
1. Madisen Wheeler
2. Brady Weible
3. Marty Frisk
4. Hallie Hovenkotter
5. Tyler Kelsch
