Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays is featuring comments from Dr. Dale Woerner, Cargill Endowed Professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University from a recent conversation he is featured in on the Angus at Work Podcast. Yesterday’s BeefBuzz detailed the problems with the current yield grade system, and today, Woerner gets into potential solutions.
“Technology is the key,” Woerner said. “Technology that can run at production speeds and give us the accuracy we are looking for.”
He pointed out that medical technology has generally been a good starting point for the agricultural industry to look at precision measurements. He and his team at Texas Tech have evaluated CT scanning, MRI scanning, and DEXA scanning.
“X-ray technology allows us to look into the animal – fat, muscle, bone,” Woerner continued. “Those technologies are not only accurate, but they are measurements of yield. We can use those measurements to quantify with a very high level of accuracy and confidence how much muscle, fat, and bone is in a carcass.”
The cost of using such technology is the preeminent obstacle. So, Dr. Woerner’s team has shifted their focus to technology that can predict what X-rays show. “The thing we are working on at Texas Tech is three-dimensional imaging. Three-dimensional images can be used to measure conformation, shape, and volume of carcasses. Then, through statistical modeling, and even some artificial intelligence models, we can estimate red meat yield with a really high level of accuracy.”
Early models show 90% or greater accuracy with a 3-D image that can be captured in an instant. This could only benefit the beef industry.
“When we get a better market signal, we get a better measure to go back to producers with, then we can make progress for red meat yield,” Woerner explained.
Woerner believes that the industry is energized enough on all levels to bolster the technology forward. He estimates three to five years to have something notable, visible, and functioning in plants.
“What are the obstacles?” Woerner speculated. “Time and resources. The type of work that we need to do to develop these technologies, like scanning carcasses and then cutting them into their pieces and components, takes a lot of manpower and time.
“Then, of course, collaboration from the industry. All of those pieces are coming together, but it’s going to take some time to get it done. It is really more time than money at this point because the technology is already available.”
Listen to the full Angus at Work Podcast here. The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
