Cow-Calf Commentary for Iowa Cattleman Magazine
Randie Culbertson, Cow-Calf Extension Specialist
July 2026
Take away from BIF – Red Meat Yield
I recently attended the 2026 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium held in Boise, Idaho. This is one of my favorite meetings to attend because it brings together cattle producers, researchers, extension specialists, breed associations, and industry professionals to discuss the latest advancements in beef cattle genetic improvement. The meeting also examines industry issues and how to address them through genetic selection and technologies. I have always found that BIF more than any other meeting I attend provides me a unique opportunity to collaborate with colleagues to discuss the newest advancements in scientific discovery as well as candid discussions with cattle producers on challenges they face in production and the implementation of new advancements. This year’s meeting provided a wide range of topics on genetic improvement from bovine respiratory disease, bovine congestive heart failure, wearable technologies, and advancements in genetic evaluations. These topics were all fascinating but the presentation I keep coming back to was a discussion on red meat yield and what it means for how we select cattle going forward. The bottom line: the beef industry has been relying on an imperfect proxy for red meat yield, and better tools are on the horizon but we’re not there yet.
Dr. Dale Woerner, Cargill Endowed Professor in Sustainable Meat Science at Texas Tech University, presented on some of the innovative work his group is doing at Texas Tech for carcass evaluation. They are using CT scanning and computer modeling to generate 3D images and better estimates of red meat yield from beef carcasses. Although the technology is fascinating, it was not what I walked away pondering about.
Dr. Woerner walked through the limitations of the current USDA Yield Grade (YG) system. Developed over 60 years ago, YG is based on external fat thickness, ribeye area, hot carcass weight, and kidney-pelvic-heart (KPH) fat - the internal fat deposits around the kidney, pelvis, and heart. The current equation for YG adds fat thickness, hot carcass weight, and KPH and subtracts ribeye area. Since a lower YG represents a higher yield, ribeye is the only component of the equation that would decrease YG. Cattle genetics and management have changed substantially since the development of YG, but the formula has not. Increased selection pressure for marbling has extended days on feed, adding fat and carcass weight and producing heavier, lower-yielding carcasses. The result is that YG premiums and discounts no longer provide producers with accurate feedback on actual red meat yield. Technologies capable of capturing precise carcass composition measurements exist today. The challenge is deploying them at scale.
A challenge for the beef industry is the disconnect between ribeye area and actual carcass muscling. Genetic selection has driven real improvement in ribeye area and marbling, but a larger ribeye has not translated into proportionally more total muscle in the carcass. Research shows that ribeye area alone explains less than 5% of the variation in saleable muscle yield, meaning most of what determines how much red meat a carcass actually produces is not captured by ribeye area at all. The beef industry has been selecting on an imprecise proxy - ribeye area EPD - for red meat yield for decades.
We know genetic improvement for market-relevant traits is achievable. The shift toward more choice and prime carcasses proves it. The path to improving red meat yield genetically follows the same logic, but it starts with data. Developing EPDs or genomic tools for any trait requires recorded measurements (phenotypes) on animals with known genetics. Current technology can measure red meat yield precisely, but is not yet fast enough to keep pace with commercial harvest line speeds. Until red meat yield can be measured routinely at an industry level, genetic tools for improvement will be limited. Collecting that data will face the same hurdles as carcass data collection today, it requires producers to retain ownership through slaughter and report data back to breed associations for genetic evaluation. That said, red meat yield may be more tractable than other carcass traits because it is expected to be captured through 3D imaging and computer modeling as that technology scales.
So what should producers do now? We do not yet know the genetic correlation between ribeye area and red meat yield and that answer requires data that does not exist at scale yet. Until market signals shift and red meat yield data becomes available, ribeye area EPDs remain the best genetic tool for improving carcass muscling. Continue selecting on ribeye area. As industry data accumulates and the relationship between ribeye area and red meat yield becomes clearer, EPDs and genomics can be refined to target this trait more precisely. Watch for changes in how packers price carcasses - when market signals align with red meat yield, the genetics industry will follow.
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