With just 10 months left to run a major beef eating quality project, the industry in Wales will soon have a decision to make on whether to potentially change how it pays farmers for cattle.

“It is very much for the industry to decide if this is what they want. We are providing all the tools,” explained Dr Pip Nicholas Davies from Aberystwyth University, a lead researcher on the BeefQ project.

Along with other research partners, including Queen’s University Belfast, the project aim is to create a Welsh version of the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading system. Developed over the last 20 years, the MSA model assigns three different quality grades depending on numerous factors, including the animal’s age, sex, processing method and how it is then cooked.

Key to the system are trained meat graders operating in factories who record various physical parameters around sex, age, hanging method, pH, rib fat and ossification score.

The ossification score is a measure of the maturity of the animal. As animals get older, the fibre in meat gets stronger, the meat gets tougher, and the ossification score goes up.

We know fast-growing animals, all other things being equal, will have a better eating quality

Speaking at an online event as part of the Royal Welsh Show, Deanna Leven from levy body Meat Promotion Wales, said that all parts of the supply chain can influence the eating quality of beef.

But in terms of things within farmer control, she emphasised the importance of minimising stress in the 14 days pre-slaughter and avoiding very lean animals (at least 3mm of fat over the carcase).

“We know fast-growing animals, all other things being equal, will have a better eating quality,” she added, pointing out that there was more variation within breeds than between breeds, so the overall breed is not important.

Instead, management (including minimising disease) is crucial to ensuring that animals fulfil their growth potential.

But as well as more reliable eating quality, younger animals at slaughter will also have a lower carbon footprint, and that will be a key policy driver into the future.

Consumption

Among other pressures coming at the industry is the suggestion that consumers need to eat less meat, with the recently published National Food Strategy led by Henry Dimbelby recommending a 30% reduction in meat consumption over the next 10 years.

“If we are being encouraged to eat 30% less meat, then it is going to be people with the best performing meat that satisfiy the consumer the most, who will probably have the best opportunity,” suggested Tim Rowe, a director at Welsh meat company, Celtic Pride.

Slaughtering up to 50 cattle per week, Celtic Pride specialises in the supply of top-quality beef to the food service sector. A strong advocate of a new payment system based on eating quality, Rowe described it as moving from “a best guess, to a guarantee.”

How do you get this extra premium and how does it get shared fairly and equally through the supply chain?

He said that as part of the next stage of the project, his company will be assigning a BeefQ grade to cuts of meat, to see if they can extract extra margins from customers on the back of a guarantee of the eating quality of the beef.

“This is the big question mark against our project. How do you get this extra premium and how does it get shared fairly and equally through the supply chain? Ultimately, the consumer has got to pay for it,” he acknowledged.

If an eating quality scheme is adopted in Wales, it would likely involve some form of bonus payment on top of the weight and EUROP grade.

An industry survey completed by 165 respondents earlier in 2021 showed that the majority wanted a scheme to be administered and funded by levy bodies or an independent organisation, not beef processors.

Read more

The Australian beef model – how it works

Does the market want dairy beef?