Cattlemen, students slice up, analyze beef at four day WSU conference

The meat scientist holds up a fresh shank.

“Where is this going to go? Straight to hamburger.”

The crowd of Whitman County and northwest ranchers and WSU students watch as meat scientist John Unruh slices up the next part of the steer; the brisket.

For four days last week, 44 participants from all corners of the northwest cattle industry gathered at the WSU and U of I meat labs for a workshop on the latest and best production methods. A half dozen local ranchers, including Dick Coon of Washtucna, former president of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, participated.

Whitman County in 2007 accounted for about 1.4 percent of the state’s total cattle production, 15,116 head out of a total of 1,088,846 head, according to Kathy Wolfe, the county’s Farm Service Agency executive director.

Participants were walked through a “field to table” education, starting with eight live steers at U of I and ending at the meat lab at WSU making burgers and snack sticks.

Seven of the eight steers were donated by Ed Fields, a cattle rancher out of Moses Lake.

Participants started Wednesday with a front-row seat to several of the steers being butchered. Thursday morning kicked off with an extensive probe into a cow’s gastro-intestinal tract which was on a cart at the U of I meat facilities.

Participants looked at what constitutes a healthy cow, opening up the stomach and the small intestine for a look at a normal digestive system.

Later that day, groups teamed up to compete in guessing the yield and quality grade of four live steers.

“You want a high yield animal with a high dressing percentage,” said Janet Schmidt, Whitman County WSU Extension Director.

For example, participants took a close look at the rib-eye steak of several steers by using an ultrasound. The ring of fat on a rib-eye steak is used at the market level to determine the fat content of an animal.

“The ultra-sound is a tool to help us be more accurate about that,” Schmidt said.

Coon has 300 head of cows at his commercial cow/calf operation outside Washtucna. This year he’ll graze more than 800 stocker calves for other producers on his own grass crop.

Coon said he walked away from the session with new knowledge on judging a live animal for the quality of its meat.

“It’s one thing once you’ve got them taken apart- being able to assess them beforehand is crucial when you are feeding cattle,” Coon said of evaluating cattle on the hoof.

Coon has served as a panel speaker at this conference in years past. He pointed out participants improving their work on their animals will yield in the end healthier, tastier beef for consumers.

Other activities during the conference included an in-person lesson on wine-pairing with WSU’s top chef, Jamie Callison. For their final project, the participants cooked up burgers and snack sticks. Participants took home the snack sticks, made from a mix of beef and beef heart.

Most cattle in the state are sold to auction yards, feed lots or other producers, according to Colfax rancher John Pearson.