From staff reports On the Angus at Work podcast, Dr. Dale Woerner, a Cargill Endowed Professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University, offered potential solutions to the problems with the current yield grade system.
The Angus at Work podcast is an outlet of the American Angus Association.
“Technology is the key,” Woerner said. “Technology that can run at production speeds and give us the accuracy we are looking for.”
Noting that the agricultural industry has benefited from looking at precision measurement technology in the medical industry, he and his team have evaluated CT, MRI 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 ca rcass.”
The cost of using such technology is the main obstacle. Woerner and his team have 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,” he said. “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 the instantly captured 3D image.
“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,” he explained.
Through an energized industry, Woerner aims to have something notable, visible and functioning on plants within three to five years.
“What are the obstacles?” Woerner asked rhetorically. “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.”