Brad Johnson, a Texas Tech professor of the College of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources, partnered with a Texas A&M professor, Stephen B. Smith, to find the best steak marbling.
“We can increase marbling without making the cattle fatter,” Johnson said. “As the cattle make fat, the feed efficiency goes down and for consumers we trim off all the excess fat. But if marbling is what consumers want, we can increase marbling at different times in the feeding cycle without making the cattle fatter, and that would be a huge benefit for the beef industry.”
That means a juicy, better tasting steak.
Johnson also said Asian cattle supposedly have the right genetics to produce more marbling, whereas American breeds cannot keep up. But there’s a problem. Asian cattle breeds come with a higher because of longer feeding.
Economically this would not make sense in the U.S.
“My whole goal was to be able to get high-marbled beef without having to spend a lot of money on feed,” Johnson said.
So basically feeding the cattle at the right time will create the marbling people desire without the extra costs on feed.
