UTILISATION:THE KEY TO PROFITABILITY

Peter Rushforth, Ernest W. Edge & Sons Butchers

Hybu Cig Cymru Livestock Scholar 2016

1

Utilisation: The key to profitability

Contents 2

Introduction 3

Fore Quarter Utilisation 4Roman L, Hruska Animal Research Centre 4

Nebraska University, Lincoln 6

Greater Omaha Beef Packing Company 9

Charcuterie 9

Frank Stoysich Meats, Omaha 10

Tails and Trotters, Portland 12

Olympia Provisions, Portland 14

Gary West Meats, Jacksonville 15

Conclusion 18

2

Introduction

With the high street butchers shop continually evolving to meet consumer demands and

affordability, trying to maintain a level of sustainable profitability at the same time is very

much an uphill struggle. As a result of this fewer and fewer high street butchers are buying

full carcasses of species any more, be it pork, lamb or beef, but are instead turning to boxed

meat. Boxed meat has become ever more popular to the end retailer due to the ability of

being able to select specific cuts of your choice and the far lessened preparation time

required to make this meat saleable in comparison to a carcass. Although this market has

grown rapidly and proven beneficial to many businesses, it doesn’t come without its pitfalls.

Unfortunately a side effect of boxed meat has resulted in the decline of high skilled craft

butchers who have the ability not only to break down a full carcass but also the ability to

utilise every muscle from the carcass finding it an end market.

Fortunately for myself, my whole career to date in the butchery trade has seen me working

with full carcasses of all species, this has been of huge benefit to my skill set but also

presents its challenges. These challenges present themselves in different ways, such as:

marketing the less attractive cuts due to consumer’s lack of experience with them, or lack of

confidence; changing of demand with the seasons and having surplus of various cuts

throughout the change in climate. These challenges are most common with beef. Although

the same challenges exist with both pork and lamb, they are far easier to manage because

of the smaller nature of the carcasses. However when it comes to beef, due to the volume of

the carcass yield these problems are amplified.

Whilst analysing beef consumption statistics I noticed that in the UK we consume around

57% of our beef in the form of mince. This struck a chord with me, because although there

are many great meals to be enjoyed with using mince, I felt beef wasn’t being made the most

out of and was underappreciated. Second to that, beef mince is one of the lowest value

products attainable from the carcass, so I wanted to change the way myself and others

utilise to carcass to bring more exciting cuts and products to the consumer, whilst increasing

profitability for the retailer.

As a nation, the United States consume by far the highest volume of beef around the globe,

and per capita, are ranked 4th globally, consuming almost 80 pounds of beef per person a

year. They have also developed a far more expansive list of cuts from a beef carcass

compared to us here in the UK. With this information on board, I set my sights on the United

States and set off on a fact finding research mission to see what practices could be adopted

here in the UK to improve our meat industry.

3

Clay Centre, Nebraska.

Nebraska is the biggest beef producing state in the whole of the United States, and located

slap bang in the middle of the country is considered the epicentre of beef production, so it

seemed a very logical place to start! Not only is Nebraska the biggest producer of beef, it is

also the top corn producing state in the U.S. so

there is no shortage of feed within close proximity.

Helping the state achieve these figures is the

High Plains Aquifer, also known as the Ogallala

Aquifer, a vast underground natural water reserve

allowing continual irrigation for almost a century.

The state is made up of 55% pasture land, home

to a massive 3.7 beef cattle per person in the

state of Nebraska.

Roman L. Hruska Animal Research Centre

The Roman L. Hruska Animal Research Centre is a livestock research facility in Clay

Centre, Nebraska. The centre consists of 4 units and spans 34,000 acres with a selection of

pork, lamb and beef. They have 8,000 head of beef on pasture land and grow the corn and

hay for feed. Employed at the facility are 45 scientists with 12 of those working in the meat

quality and animal safety department. The facility mainly researches methods for increasing

the efficiency of livestock production and also has a genetics program. Though the

information I attained here was not necessarily beneficial to the utilisation aspect of the

scholarship, it was most definitely beneficial to the understanding of their beef industry, and

without a doubt opened my eyes to great possibilities for the British beef industry.

Upon arriving at the research centre I was greeted by Tommy Wheeler, one of the

researches based at the facility who took the time to show me round the premises and give

me an in-depth look into the science behind top quality beef.

All butchers in the UK are well aware of the concept of dry-ageing beef. Dry-ageing is

essentially the controlled decay where the fibres in the meat are broken down, increasing

tenderness and enhancing flavour. That is our basic understanding of the process. I’ve

included this next segment of information explaining the science behind the process to

hopefully give prospective readers a better understanding of how it takes place.

The key factor to meats tenderness is what’s called sarcomere. This is the science behind

the tightness in the fibres and grain. Sarcomere remains in its position once the animal has

been slaughtered and depending on the contraction of the sarcomere determines how

4

tender the cut will be. The more contracted the link the tougher the meat will be, if the link is

relaxed the cut will be tender. The diagrams below demonstrate this in an easier to digest

manner.

Sarcomeres are the science behind why we use hip suspension when maturing beef. It

causes the sirloin to be stretched in such a way to make it more tender. The sarcomere can

be compared to a chain link fence. If you have a well-constructed tight fence and you cut a

strand of wire it will compromise the structural integrity and cause it to weaken. However if

the fence is loose and you cut a wire it’s unlikely it will have much effect. This is comparable

to a tough piece of meat, which will benefit greatly from the ageing process whereas an

already tender piece of meat will not require much ageing before it is as tender as can be.

In the lab they have devised a scale in which they can measure tenderness, giving it

relevance to them and the buyer. This is known as the Warner-Bratzler Shear Force scale.

The centre have developed software with a German company where they can scan the rib-

eye at the 14th rib and grade the marbling content

and how tender the meat will be in 14 days from

slaughter. If the UK were to adopt this technology it

represents very exciting opportunities for both the

farmer and the buyer. Having a grading system that

allows us to request not only conformation and fat

cover of a carcass, but tenderness and marbling too,

would enable butchers the opportunity to source

incredibly consistent beef to a precise specification,

and could thus enable farmers to demand a better

price for high quality produce.

5

Shear Force Scale machine

The centre is not yet finished with this incredible piece of kit yet though. They hope to be

able to one day develop it to be capable of also grading for colour stability. Colour stability is

how long the meat keeps its cherry red blossom colour before starting to brown having been

exposed to oxygen. They are also working on pinpointing the genetic markers linked to

colour stability which in the future could then be incorporated into breed lines, making meat

that holds its blossom longer, more desirable to retailers as it stay presentable for longer on

the shelf.

Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska University, Lincoln

Travelling 100 miles east took me from the eerily quiet, vast nothingness of Hastings to the

far denser populated city of Lincoln, Nebraska. This is where I met up with the highly

knowledgeable and very accommodating Chris Calkins, Professor of Animal Science at

Nebraska University. Chris was very proud of the work they were carrying out at the

university and was very keen to show off the incredible facilities the university boasts. After a

full tour of the premises he invited me to meet all of his students and fellow colleagues, who

I’d been informed were all very interested to hear how the butchery trade looks across the

pond at home in the UK. So armed with a quick PowerPoint and pictures of a selection of

products I produce in work on a weekly basis, I spent some time explaining to them how the

trade differs for us at home and how the consumer requires different products to fit their fast

paced, convenience lifestyle.

I explained to Chris that in the UK we lacked a lot of imagination when it came to the

utilisation of the forequarter of beef. Focusing on the chuck specifically I told him how we are

not exploring it to gain greater potential. Most butchers in the UK will acquire mince trim,

6

Infra-red camera used to grade beef

stewing beef and trim for processed products such as burgers and sausages, with the

supermarkets offering no extra selection from the forequarter either. Fortunately for me a

couple of years prior to my visit Nebraska University had ran a cooperative project with the

University of Florida with the goal of increasing the value of the chuck of beef, and creating

an encyclopaedia of knowledge for each muscle. For this muscle profiling project they would

carry out a comprehensive body of work that fully characterised the chuck for the following:

tenderness, composition, processing traits, dimensions, colour and fibre type. Ensuring the

results found would be consistent and reliable they carried out the testing on 144 carcasses.

Having carried out the testing the universities compiled a chart to demonstrate their findings,

one of the most important characteristics from my point of view as a retail butcher to

highlight was anything with good tenderness, the columns labelled “Moist, WBS” and “Dry,

WBS” represent this. Tenderness is highly important from a retail point of view as this it is

the number one priority in terms of eating quality. I have drawn attention to a couple of the

muscles from the chart below as incredibly viable options to sell as steak cuts on the

butchers counter, adding value to the muscle but maintaining a very affordable price tag. As

the nature of the chuck lends it to being a far cheaper option, this enables the opportunity to

bring premium quality steak to a demographic that could previously not afford it.

7

There are a select few muscles in this chart which are worth paying particular attention to,

the Flat Iron (Infraspinatus & Subscapularis), Petite Tenders (Teres Major) and Ranch

steaks.

Having carried out the research the universities next task was to present their findings to

major beef processors around the country in order to encourage them to adopt the practices

of harnessing the individual muscles for sale as steaks, rather than being processed. The

results speak for themselves. With the addition of the new shoulder clod cuts the impact it

had the wholesale price of beef saw an increase of $50-$70 per head. Multiply this by the 25

million head of cattle processed in the year and the gains accumulated to a massive $1.5

billion.

The next target of the operation was the chuck roll. The chuck roll typically represents

tighter grained cuts means they will be considerably tougher, so most of these are for slow

cooking. However with the correct know how there are a couple of hidden gems such as the

Denver Cut and the Delmonico.

8

With processors also implementing the adapted cutting techniques to accommodate the

new cuts from the chuck roll, they saw added value per head of $40-$50. Combining the

added value from the shoulder clod and chuck roll saw additional value to the industry at

around $2.65 billion. The increased value of the live animal proved beneficial to the

producer, processor and also the consumer as they now had a far greater selection to chose

from.

Omaha, Nebraska.

Greater Omaha Packing Company, Omaha

The following morning, one of the graduate students from Nebraska University, Celyn Hart,

and I set off on the road up to Omaha to go and check out one the countries larger beef

processing facilities. Chris Calkins had close relations at the processing unit and was keen

for me to see how his research into the forequarter was being put into action. We had a

guided tour around the vast facility which was slaughtering and processing a breath taking

2400 head of beef cattle every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. A company of such

scale unfortunately were hesitant to give any information away to an outsider but

nevertheless an unforgettable experience.

Charcuterie

Now satisfied with the information I’d obtained regarding beef forequarter utilisation, it was

time for me to focus on the second aspect of my trip, charcuterie.

So what is charcuterie exactly? In simple terms, charcuterie is the umbrella term given to

any of the following: smoked, dried, salt cured and brine cured meats. Meat sees great

benefits from going through any of these processes, adding heaps of interesting and exciting

flavours, but also increasing the shelf life dramatically to that of fresh meat.

9

My reason for wanting to research charcuterie was simple. Britain’s tastes are far more

accommodating of foreign food experiences than we used to be and it is important that we,

as the independent retailer, keep up to date and on trend to meet customer demand before

we fall behind. Unfortunately in many of today’s butcher’s shops, including my own, we

branch out no further than a well-equipped pie counter and possibly a deli counter with a

small offering of cooked cold meats. This is of great contrast to the sort of deli counters we

see in American butcher’s shops, offering vast selections of salami’s, chorizo’s, Parma ham

and many other products.

During my time in the States I wished to specifically research 2 areas within the charcuterie

umbrella, European influenced pork products, and beef jerky. Beef jerky in particular was a

product I was greatly excited about. From a retail point of view, I saw great potential with

jerky in the UK. With modern health and body building crazes seeking high protein, lean

snacking options and now more than ever people are living a much faster paced lifestyle and

are often replacing meals with snacks. Another great advantage of jerky is it offers an outlet

for cuts of meat such as topside and silverside, in the summer months when demand for

roasting joints significantly decreases. This offers more utility for the carcass and also seeks

to add value.

Frank Stoysich Meats, Omaha

Still with Celyn from Nebraska University, we headed out north east and made the 56 mile

trip from Lincoln to Omaha, the largest city in the state of Nebraska. Frank Stoysich Meats

holds the reputation for the number one full-service butchers shop in the city, boasting one of

the most extensive sausage counters I’d ever witnessed! As well as the vast quantity of

sausage they also produce on site a large amount of smoked products, such as jerky, bacon

and meat sticks.

10

A product I was particularly interested in they produced which are not so common in the UK

are meat sticks. You may be familiar with them in a form we see on our super market

shelves known as Pepperami. What they are is a sort of half-way house somewhere

between salami and jerky, often smoked to help increase shelf life even further. They may

not be a great representative of the high quality, hand crafted style of charcuterie the

Europeans are famous the world over for, however they certainly do have their place. Like

with any sausage, these are a great bi-product of any whole carcass butchery, converting

any spare trim into added value, saleable product. The added bonus with these is once they

have been dried out and hot smoked in a controlled environment, just the same as jerky, the

water activity in the meat will have greatly reduced making them a shelf stable product at

room temperature for up to at least 12 months. At Stoysich meats they didn’t just leave it at

beef either; they applied the same process to a whole host of species including pork, beef,

turkey and salmon! Once they were cured, all produce was vacuum packed and displayed in

a custom built display unit holding pride of place in the middle of the shop.

11

Portland, Oregon.

Touching down in Portland was an exciting moment, I’d heard off many people along the

journey that Portland is an exciting, trendy, hip town with a rich culture and that if you’re into

anything food and drink, this is the place to be. Portland is well renowned for its over 600

food carts and many micro-breweries dotted all around the city, as well as these, nestled into

the bustling streets of the city are several artisan charcuterie producers, all doing things in

their own unique way, and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in!

Tails and Trotters, Portland

My first stop was a visit to Tails and Trotters where I met up with co-owner and founder

Aaron Silverman. Tails and Trotters was largely influenced by the regional cured hams of

Europe. Tails & Trotters pork is mirrored after the famed Jamon Iberico from Spain; crafted

from the Pata Negra, or black-footed Iberian pigs who roam the oak groves of south and

southwest Spain feasting on acorns. Using the resources of this region, Aaron substituted

hazelnuts for acorns and the result was the development of a distinctive variety of Pacific

Northwest prosciutto.

It is crucial to highlight that getting the fat correct for charcuterie pigs is of paramount

importance if you want to achieve an authentic high quality product. A normal feed program

doesn’t contain enough energy to produce enough fat which is why nuts are of such benefit.

Feeding pigs a nut based diet was not something I was familiar with previous to meeting

Aaron, however the effects it had on the meat post slaughter made it so they were far more

suitable for the long term curing processes necessary to produce the European style

charcuterie products. Studies have determined that pigs fattened on nuts produce meat with

a higher percentage of healthy fats like scarce amino acids and unsaturated fats. The

hazelnuts also increase flavour in both the fat and meat while producing the necessary

intramuscular and subcutaneous fat cover necessary for prosciutto production. Another

benefit of feeding hazelnuts to the pigs is that the fat becomes a lot more stable, this makes

the fat much more predictable and reliable and far less susceptible to spoilage when curing

over long periods of time, sometimes longer than 2 years.

12

Aaron struck me as a man who paid close attention to detail. There was not a figure he didn’t

know when it came to his product range, be it curing recipes, nitrite/nitrate application rates

or weight loss at certain checkpoints of the curing process, he had the lot covered, a true

professional of his craft, and this was very apparent when the real business started,

sampling.

One of the products he was most renowned for was his prosciutto. If you’re unfamiliar with

this product it starts off as a leg of pork, it is left on the bone for the whole process but is

consumed sliced boneless at the end of the process. The process starts with the dry cure

being applied and left for 40 days, at this point the leg will have around 10% weight loss.

After this the leg will be hung and dry aged for a further 4-6 months losing another 20-25%

overall weight. Finally the leg will be sealed with lard and rice flour, the idea of this is to

conceal any exposed areas of the leg to protect it from harmful bacteria that may be present

in the fermentation chamber. After 2 years in a controlled ageing room, with the temperature

held at 45 degrees F and 65% humidity and with 30% of starting weight lost, we have the

final product, prosciutto. The magic of this whole process is transforming a piece of fresh

meat with a shelf life no greater than 2 weeks, letting fermentation work its magic and

without even the application of any heat, finishing with some of the most exquisite, ready to

eat ham in the world.

Olympia Provisions, Portland

Staying in

Portland, next

on my list was

Olympia

Provisions.

Olympia Provisions is a meat and restaurant company that produces artisan charcuterie and 13

has a string of restaurants operating under the same name. Founded in 2009, the company

experienced rapid growth and recognition across the United States, going from a 900 square

foot production facility to a 34,000 square foot production facility in only 5 years. The fast

paced growth of the business however did not affect the quality of the product, with them

winning a whole host of prestigious awards along the way, such as the Good Food Awards,

which they’ve won more than any other entrant.

The purpose of my visit here was to gain some experience in mass production of a high

quality artisan product. Co-founder Elias Cairo and Plant Manager Josh Graves welcomed

me with an access all areas pass, this just went to show how proud they were with what had

been achieved at the business, with absolutely no secrets or surprises hiding behind closed

doors. This could be seen more as a work experience style visit, getting the opportunity to

work alongside the team for 4 days in the facility, getting a taste of every stage of production

across multiple product lines. Coming from a small independent retail shop at home, this

was a very exciting opportunity to use some industry leading, large scale hi-tech machinery!

Jacksonville, Oregon

Gary West Meats, Jacksonville

14

Jerky was next on the agenda. Jerky is the result of meat going through a process in order to

give it a very long shelf life and make stable at ambient temperature. This is achieved by

curing, smoking and drying the meat out until it reaches a point where it is dried out and has

very little water activity left. By eliminating the water activity and stabilising the PH level in

the meat you eradicate any conditions in which bacteria can survive and multiply, thus

leaving you with a long-lasting meat snack item. As a result of this the characteristics of jerky

aren’t typically what you’d expect of a meat product, it goes very tough and requires quite an

amount of chewing in order to break down and digest it. However, this does not mean to say

that it is not enjoyable!

As we are well aware the Americans are renowned for their jerky and have been for many

decades, the industry is worth a staggering $1.4 billion and is growing on average 2.4% a

year. As the world becomes ever more connected through cheap travel and the internet we

are starting to notice more and more food types from overseas land on our shores, and with

that not only comes great opportunity to produce these products for the British market, but

also gives the British farmer another outlet for his quality produce. This is where I can see

jerky being of real benefit to the UK, in the theme of this report it’s all about giving meat

processors more options in order to utilise a full carcass, and where jerky really comes into

it’s own is it enables a cut of meat, such as topside, an outlet in the summer months when

roasting joint sales typically dwindle.

Gary West meats based in Jacksonville, Oregon are one of the market leaders when it

comes to beef jerky in the US. They have won a whole host of awards across the country

and have also featured in some of the major news outlets such as Fox News, ABC News

and The New York Times. They’re very much a family run business ran by husband and wife

Paul and Whitney Murdoch. I had reached out to Paul prior to my trip to the states and he

was more than happy to welcome me into his family home and teach me everything there

was to learn when it came to jerky production!

When it comes to the core ingredient for his beef jerky Paul was buying in whole topsides

of beef, he did mention that any form of roasting cut such as knuckle or silverside are also

suitable however he likes to use just topside in order to maintain a good consistency with

production.

- The start of the process is most definitely the easiest, once the topsides are trimmed

out to 100% visible lean they are then sliced, and the cure is applied. The base cure

consists of pink cure (sodium nitrite), salt, brown sugar and rosemary (stops fat from

oxidising). Of course, for any different flavour varieties simply add these to the cure.

15

- Once the cure has been applied the meat is left to sit in plastic tubs for 24 hours in

refrigeration in order for the cure to work its way through the meat and let any surplus

juices from the meat drain.

- Having been left for a day the meat is then vacuum tumbled. Paul had said that the

investment of a vacuum tumbler had been paramount to his business as his tumbling

time went from 4 hours to 30 minutes, enabling him to increase his throughput of

production greatly. The purpose of the vacuum tumbling is to make sure the cure and

flavourings are evenly distributed throughout the whole product.

- Now that the beef has been cured it will be loaded up onto Teflon racks on a big

trolley ready to go into the smoker.

- Smoking the jerky is the most important part of the process, this is where all the

moisture will be dried out of the meat, however this has to be done in a very

controlled manor in order not to actually cook the meat, but bring it to temperature to

dry it out. Once the product is completed, it has a shelf life of 12 months.

- This part of the process is called hot smoking. The smoker will steadily climb from

0 ̊ f - 145 ̊ f over the course of 30 minutes. Once at this temperature it will remain

there for 1 hour. The smoker will then climb to 180 ̊ f where it will remain for 2 hours

30 minutes. After this 4-hour hot smoking cycle the product is now essentially

complete and just needs to cool down naturally. If the product is cooled in a fridge

then condensation is generated, and this can cause big problems for mould further

down the line.

16

Machine for slicing topside of beef

Vacuum tumbler

17

Teflon racks for beef to lay on whilst smoking

The chamber of the smoking machine

Now that our jerky has been produced it’s time to get to the most exciting part of the whole

operation, the costings! It is undeniably a time-consuming process and one which takes

great precaution and care; however, the rewards are well worth the labour. Based on buying

100lbs of raw topside at $3.29lb ($329), you can expect to lose around 20% of this weight

through trimming, so that leaves us with 80lbs of green weight, green weight being product

we can directly convert to jerky. Having gone through the whole process that 100lb of raw

beef now looks a little more like 45lb. Based on that we recalculate our buying in price to

$8.23 for a dry pound of jerky. With labour, spices and packaging added to this our full cost

of production can look around the $11.55/lb mark. This may seem like quite a high figure, but

when you realise that a dry pound of jerky of this quality retails for around $40/lb the mark up

really does seem rather attractive.

18

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the United States are very forward thinking in their approach to

carcass utilisation, it’s a field that has been invested into heavily and an awful amount of

research has been devoted to in order for them to maximise utilisation and profitability from

every carcass that is slaughtered and processed.

It is my belief that there is an awful amount we can learn from their practices, particularly

when it comes to the breaking down and utilisation of the forequarter of beef. While there are

butchers around the UK starting to adopt these practices, the small independent retailer

simply doesn’t represent the majority of UK beef sales and it is because of this there needs

to be a big push towards processors in order for them to take on this new, more profitable

style of processing. It’s a guaranteed way, which has already been demonstrated by the

American market, to add value to the beef sector. Not only increasing profitability for the

retailer but adding greater value to the carcass for the farmer.

This trip for me really was eye opening and gives me great hope for the future of our

industry, having demonstrated these many avenues of adding value to a carcass through an

additional process I hope it’s clear, and that you can agree with me in saying that utilisation

is the key to profitability.

19