Market Compliance
Carcases that are not compliant to specifications cost the producer and processes extensively each year. Checking how well your livestock matches the target market carcase specifications for weight and fat can be done in myFeedback platform comparing grids.
The greater the number of carcases receiving penalties for missing the target, the lower your average price will be. There may be a different target market grid that better matches your lambs. To assist you in assessing this you can change the target specifications by selecting a different industry grid, or by creating a user defined grid with your own weight and fat ranges for an alternative market, to see how your animals fit.
Meeting market compliance can be influenced by a number of factors. To understand more about meeting carcase compliance please see below.
For most slaughter cattle sales, the price you receive for each carcase depends on how well it meets the specifications of the target market.
Specifications may be broad and simple for some markets, but in others they can include detailed requirements for carcase and meat quality and more.
If your processor buys cattle on a dressed weight basis (over the hooks), talk to your processor about their company specifications and prices. Also ask if you will be paid on a hot or cold weight basis. This is important because a cold weight is lighter and some abattoirs make a deduction for moisture loss.
- Slaughter floor measurements (dentition, weight, sex and fat depth) are widely used to describe carcases and determine their price.
- Discounts can occur for bruising and dark cutting (dark meat colour).
- Chiller Assessment, including meat colour, fat colour and marbling, forms part of the specifications in many quality markets, particularly grain fed beef for export.
- If carcases require grading for eating quality by Meat Standards Australia (MSA), producers must be registered and comply with a number of pre-slaughter and carcase assessment requirements.
Further Information:
Check how well the weight/fat pattern of your carcases matches the target market specifications. The greater the number of carcases receiving penalties for missing the target, the lower your average price will be.
There may be a different weight/fat grid from another market that matches your cattle better.
You can change the target specifications and put in your own weight and fat ranges for an alternative market to see how your animals fit.
If you have enough cattle to sell, it may be possible next time to get more into the target area (and a better price) by splitting the mob and selling to two different markets.
It is much easier to market groups of animals if they have similar specifications.
You can reduce variation in a sale mob by working on the main causes. Some are easier than others to control. They include:
- The number you have to pick from - the more you can draft out, the more uniform you can make the sale lot. Looking for extras to "make up the numbers" always adds to variation.
- Drafting/assessment skill - the person sorting the cattle may need to improve their skills at assessing weight or fatness.
- Cattle with a range of frame size and maturity patterns running together can finish at different weights and fat depths.
- Variation in background (entry weight, genetics, nutrition, health etc.) if they are not home-bred cattle.
- Variation in age and therefore weight can be reduced in home-bred cattle by condensing the calving period.
Fatness can be estimated quite accurately in live cattle.
Although muscling is not usually part of specifications, it is important for producers to assess muscle scoring because well-muscled cattle yield more beef and can satisfy a wider range of markets.
Further Information:
Shape assessment and muscle score in beef cattle
The description of the type of animal required by a market may change depending on whether it is a live or slaughter market. The market focus for a beef producer will be impacted by things such as financial return and suitability of the production system.
Target beef markets available to commercial beef producers include:
- domestic slaughter markets
- export slaughter markets
- store market (live cattle for feedlot, pasture or crop finishers, growers, live export).
Slaughter markets
Specifications for slaughter markets are generally described in terms of carcase weight (kg) and fatness (mm on the p8 rump site). Most slaughter markets specify other requirements including sex, age (dentition), muscle score or butt shape, fat distribution, breed content, hormone growth promotant and chemical residue status.
Beef carcase traits in some specifications include:
- meat colour
- fat colour, marbling
- rib fat thickness
- bone maturity (ossification)
- muscle pH (acidity).
Most of the slaughter traits will be influenced by pre-slaughter husbandry.
Market feedback
Meeting carcase specifications and understanding consumer requirements are key areas of ensuring compliance with a market requirement. There are various methods to obtain feedback. It is important to make a connection with the purchaser of stock through feedback to assess the suitability of cattle to the end user.
Further Information:
Growth, maturity and carcase suitability
BREEDPLAN EBVs - the traits explained
BREEDPLAN - Understanding Carcase EBVs
Developing an effective breeding plan for your beef business
Crossbreeding systems for beef cattle
Economic advantages of better management of your beef breeding herd
Optimising weight and fat for a given market will increase producer profitability and give the processor more carcases that meet their customer’s requirement.
The following carcase attributes affect compliance to markets.
These carcases do not suit this market; the cattle have matured too early. The best short-term option for cattle like this may be to find a lighter weight market and sell them earlier.
They could also be made to reach this target market at an older age if they were grown out slower. This may not be economical and the cattle may exceed limits on dentition.
If you bought these cattle to finish for this market, they were probably too small framed or had too much fat at the start.
If you bred these cattle, the main option to make them more suitable to this market is to increase frame size and muscling by:
- Bull selection using carcase EBVs for growth, yield (RBY%) and fat depth within your breed.
- Crossbreeding using sires with more growth and muscling. This option requires careful planning don't add too much frame size or you may affect breeding efficiency, or need to make other changes.
These cattle may have been suited to a lighter weight market, before they became too fat.
They would not be suitable to target markets heavier than this unless they were grown out slowly first to develop a bigger frame and more muscle.
If you bought them to finish for this market, they were probably too small in the frame, lightly muscled, or had too much fat on them at the start.
If you bred them, there are three main options:
- Consider targeting a lighter weight market and sell them earlier, when they are finished.
- Increase the stocking rate, this may slow their individual growth and reduce fatness while increasing beef produced per hectare.
- Use genetics to increase their frame size and/or muscling so they are not as fat at this weight.
The genetic option can be done by bull selection using carcase EBVs within your breed, or by crossbreeding. This option requires careful planning - don't add too much frame size or you may affect breeding efficiency, or need to make other changes.
You can use the BeefSpecs tool to see how the weight and fat specifications of your cattle change as they grow. This can help you decide which market to target and predict when the cattle will be ready.
These cattle would probably have hit the target specifications if they had been slaughtered earlier, when they were lighter and leaner. Their natural growth pattern should suit this market.
If you bought these cattle to finish for this market, they were too far advanced at the start, and needed less time to finish.
If you breed these cattle, the easiest option is just sell them earlier, when they meet the weight and fat specifications.
If you have a longer growing season and want to keep them longer to get paid for extra weight, you need to target a market with heavier and fatter carcase specifications.
You can use the BeefSpecs tool to see how the weight and fat specifications of your cattle change as they grow. This can help you decide which market to target and predict when the cattle will be ready.
The simplest thing to do next time would be to sell to a lighter weight market, or carry them on longer until they reach the target weight.
If you bought them to finish for this market, they were probably too light at the start.
If you bred them, you may need to consider a range of other options, e.g.
- Grow slower to a heavier weight before finishing, but this would require more time and may not match your available pasture growing season.
- Improve nutrition (pastures) so they are heavier at this age, but bear in mind they will be fatter too (the BeefSpecs tool will help here).
- Breed for increased frame, growth and muscling using EBVs to add weight without adding fatness.
You can use the BeefSpecs tool to see how the weight and fat specifications of your cattle change as they grow. This can help you decide which market to target and predict when the cattle will be ready.
Cattle in this category should have made the target if they were kept longer and had continued to grow fast enough to satisfy their needs for weight gain and fattening (i.e. good nutrition and enough time).
There should be no need to consider genetic changes.
Growth rate, which is a direct result of feed quality and quantity, is the main factor to manage. The key principles to move light, lean cattle towards the target are:
- The faster they grow, the earlier they will reach the target weight.
- The faster they grow, the fatter they will be at the target weight.
- To put on any extra depth of fat at all, young growing cattle need to gain weight faster than about 0.8kg/day (or slightly less for smaller frame cattle, or older cattle in good condition).
These cattle did not grow fast enough during the finishing period to put on the required amount of fat.
If you bought them to finish for this market, the cattle were probably too lean or had too much European content to finish at this weight.
If you bred these leaner cattle:
- The simplest option next time would be to carry them on to finish for a heavier market, or sell them as feeder cattle.
- To do a better job of hitting this target market, give them better nutrition earlier in their life, with better quality pastures or supplements. This would allow them to reach the target weight earlier (at a younger age) and put on more fat.
It would also be possible to consider changing the genetics of the cattle so they are easier to finish at this weight, but this may reduce their potential growth rate and reduce their value as feeder cattle.
You can use the BeefSpecs tool to see how the weight and fat specifications of your cattle change as they grow. This can help you decide which market to target and predict when the cattle will be ready.
The simplest thing to do next time if you are selling to this market, is to sell them earlier, before they get too heavy. If they would have been too lean at the right weight, see comments for "Too Lean".
If you bought these cattle to finish for this market, they were probably too heavy at the start.
If you bred these cattle, the main options are:
- Choose a heavier market and get paid for the extra weight.
- Increase stocking rate and turn off greater numbers of cattle, weighing slightly less per head, at the same time.
There should be no need to consider major genetic changes unless these cattle are already very heavy and no heavier markets are available. If this is the case, see comments for "Too heavy, Too lean".
These cattle are difficult to match to this market without significant change to nutrition and possibly genetics too. They are probably better suited for carrying on a heavier weight market if one is available.
To change them to fit this market, they would need to have grown faster from earlier in life to put on more fat at this weight. They would reach the target weight at a younger age but with more fat.
You can use the BeefSpecs tool to see what you need to do with nutrition to hit the target.
If you bought these cattle to finish for this market, they were probably too heavy at the start and too late maturing.
If you bred these cattle the main options are:
- choose a heavier weight market
- improve nutrition by pasture development and/or supplementary feeding
- sell them to a feedlot for finishing.
If the cattle are already very heavy but still too lean, consider breeding back to an earlier maturing (smaller frame) type of bull. Cattle with a more moderate frame size are easier to fatten than cattle with a large frame.
Cows are usually a by-product of a breeding enterprise but can provide a significant proportion of your income. There are often opportunities to improve the value of cows faster than you can for steers.
- Cow carcases are mainly boned out for manufacturing beef but good primal cuts may be sold as table beef. Cows that are muscular rather than overfat are significantly more valuable.
- Adding value to cows is often a missed opportunity because most people see them as culls to get rid of. Fattening cows can be quite profitable but be careful if they are close to calving or have lost teeth.
- Genetic improvement of the herd can also improve the carcase value of surplus cows but there can be a down side if it's not planned carefully.
Caution on making changes
Some changes can be quite easy, such as feeding longer, or adding supplementary feeding, or improving health management.
More significant changes such as upgrading pastures to boost nutrition need careful evaluation to ensure they are viable and fit in with the whole farm program.
Be especially careful about changing the maturity type of your cattle by introducing new breed types or a new breeding system. These can be very successful in finding the best match between your production environment and available markets, but mistakes can be costly and slow to fix.
Before making the bigger changes, it is vital to get good advice and plan them carefully, as these have complex effects on the whole balance of your pasture/livestock system.
Seek support from a livestock advisor, agent or trusted party before making big changes in your system.