Marbling in Beef Cattle, the Result of Genetics and Proper Nutrition

Today at the meat case, consumers are increasingly showing a preference for well marbled Choice and Prime beef. Once believed that to get beef cattle to marble they needed to be 14 to 16 months of age before entering the feedlot, today research suggests that genetics and days on a high concentrate diet is the greatest determinate of marbling in cattle, and age is nearly irrelevant. In the past 20 years it’s been discovered that when properly fed, cattle as young as 13 months can grade Choice or better. In this presentation, Dr. Francis L. Fluharty, Ohio State University Professor Emeritus in the Department of Animal Sciences and presently Department Head at the University of Georgia Animal and Dairy Science Department, details how cattle with the proper genetics can be fed most efficiently, and also marble at ages much less than previously believed when properly fed a high energy diet.