By Tisa Keller

ALBERTA’S BEEF INDUSTRY

Pasture During all seasons like spring, summer and fall cows and calves spend most of their days living and feeding on the grassland. The typical feed for these animals generally consists of native grasses, tame grasses, legumes and other plants. With most calves, they are accustom to food other than their mothers milk in the fall months until they reach the weight of two hundred and thirty kilograms.

Weaning Weaning is when the calve is accustom to food other than their mothers milk. Consumers have found a two step process for weaning for calves that prevents the young cows from becoming to stressed. The two-stage weaning process consists of processing calves about a week before the actual weaning day to apply a commercially available plastic guard, or nose-flap in the nose of each calf. It is a small plastic plate, about the width of the muzzle and three inches deep, that just clips into the nostrils, similar to the plastic closers found on many bread bags. In the majority of the calves the nose-flaps prevents the calf from nursing from its mother. Then after four or five days the calf will have forgotten about trying to nurse, and then calves and cows can be separated.

Backgrounding Backgrounding refers to the growing, feeding and managing of calves from weaning until they enter a feedlot and are placed on a high concentrate finishing ration. The process with backgrounding helps prevent the calves from growing to quickly and becoming to fat. With this slower rate, its better for skeletal and muscle development. Depending on the producers of the meat, backgrounding can take anywhere from sixty days to several months. Once the young cows are weaned, they are placed on a hay-based diet. The calves stay in the process of backgrounding until they reach the desired weight of three hundred and sixty five kilograms.

Feedlot FinishingWith a feedlot, the cattle progress from bulky food such as grass or hay onto a diet that only primarily consists of grains until the reach the finished weight of six hundred kilograms. The grain based diet helps to develop tender, well marbled beef.

Feedlots can take up to one hundred and twenty days before the cattle's is sold off to the producers.

Slaughterhouse Cattle must be inspected before they are slaughtered and again post-mortem. Most market project animals are shipped to licensed abattoirs for government inspected slaughter. Inspected carcasses or meat can also be delivered to provincially licensed mobile butcher facilities or facilities permitted by Alberta Health Services for cutting, wrapping and further processing. In Canada, most meat passes through a huge slaughterhouse that sits on the windswept prairie next to the TransCanada Highway near the small city of Brooks in southeastern Alberta.

PackagingAfter the meat is declared fit for consumption, the carcasses are carved into subprimal cuts such as top round, tenderloin or sirloin and then shipped to local supermarkets. A carcass may only be graded after it has been inspected and approved for health and safety standards and bears a federal or provincial meat inspection legend or stamp. The grader assesses the carcass based on several criteria influencing either carcass quality or yield. The physical marking of the carcass with the grade is done as clearly and neatly as possible so that the grade name is easily recognized.When beef is fabricated into wholesale and/or retail cuts, the grade label on the box must correspond to the carcass grade stamp. 

Supermarket Meats!Now that the processing of the Alberta beef is over it is time to decide what cut of meat you would like to buy and cook. Depending what you want to cook, you’re probably going to want to know what part of the cow its coming from. For example, Made from the top part of the center section of rib, specifically the 6th through the 12th ribs, the beef rib primal cut is used for the traditional standing rib roast sometimes referred to as prime rib.

Sources http://albertaventure.com/2003/07/wheres-the-beef/

http://www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=5103c688-cc78-4f60-adbf-aa8984fdb5a4

http://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/2014/04/17/two-stage-weaning-reduces-calf-stress/

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/4h8346

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/4h8346

http://www.cattle.ca/resources/production-practices/meat-inspection/

http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/beefporkothermeats/ss/cutsofbeef.htm