Ultrasound Helps Feeders Pick Ultra-Perfect Cattle

Ultrasound, the technique employed by doctors to look at human fetuses in the womb, is being used by a growing number of U.S. cattlemen to get a peek at steaks and roasts yet to come.

The technique, discussed at a recent cattle-industry meeting in Denver, is designed to take the guesswork out of the optimum time in the feedlot to finish fattening cattle for market. In this case, it is not a fetus the cattle experts are looking at but the amount of fat and marbling under the hide.

“What we hope to do is make feedlot cattle as profitable as we can make them and improve the quality and consistency of the end product to the consumer,” said Lynn Locatelli, a veterinarian with Twin Forks Clinic in Benkelman, Neb.

By taking an ultrasound picture of cattle 60 to 70 days before they are sold from a feedlot to a meat processor, managers can more accurately judge the animals’ quality than the current practice of “eyeballing,” she said.

Locatelli said traditional methods of evaluating potential carcass quality can result in more than one-third of cattle in a pen being marketed 25 days away from optimal quality.

If an animal leaves the feedlot with too much fat it means a loss of money both for the lot and for the slaughterhouse, which has to trim it away. Too little fat leaves some cuts unsuitable for the tastes of consumers.

After the ultrasound reading, a computer delivers a picture that shows how much back fat and marbling is hidden under the hide. A cattle feeder can then adjust rations and feeding schedules to finish the animal at an optimum level.

Locatelli said the process has an accuracy rate of up to 80%, depending on breed and genetic characteristics.

Ultrasound scanning is conducted when cattle are moved through chutes for normal feedlot maintenance so there is no extra work, she said. “We can run comfortably at 70 [head] an hour and can go to 90 an hour if the facilities are good and the cattle cooperate. It’s not a big time-consuming project, and it’s not stressful on the cattle.”

Tom Holtorf, general manager of Schramm Feedlot, a 12,000-head operation in Yuma, Colo., said the ultrasound system saves money and can really help feeders in tough markets. “It gives our feeders a little more confidence in what we’re doing because it’s a little more predictable,” he said.

John Brethour, a beef-cattle scientist at Kansas State University’s Fort Hays Experiment Station, said he developed software for livestock ultrasound evaluations in 1986, adapting technology that had been around since the late 1950s.