CALGARY – Small and tall. As beef tastes go among consumers and restaurateurs these days, that’s the phrase that pays.
“Absolutely. Small and tall. Never have better words come out of a chef’s mouth. It’s absolutely true,” says Fred Taylor, the lead judge at the Calgary Stampede’s 2010 Quality Beef Competition, held on Monday, July 19 at Cargill Foods in High River, Alta. “They don’t want to cook a steak a half-inch thick. You can’t sell a huge rib eye to a chef in a restaurant, even if it was AAA 50 marbling. What they want is the right-sized rib eye.
“The consumer is exactly the same. The consumer goes by price, not by weight,” adds Taylor. “And the consumer is ultimately the boss of everyone in this industry.”
Taylor was tickled, then, to see the results of this year’s post-Stampede Quality Beef Competition. The contest fielded 48 entries that had been paraded around the Big Top on Saturday, July 17, during the Stampede’s UFA Steer Classic, the richest steer show in Canada and the culmination of the regional steer show season.
Ken Malterer of Ponoka, Alta., emerged as the overall winner of the Quality Beef Competition after his Speckle Park steer, with AAA 30 marbling, a rib eye of 88 square centimetres, and a carcass weight of 719.4 pounds, was proclaimed Grand Champion. Another Speckle Park, this one owned by Barry Ducherer of Neilburg, Sask., was named Reserve Champion, or runner-up, with AAA 50 marbling, a 93-square-centimetre rib eye, and a carcass weight of 673 pounds.
The Stampede’s Quality Beef Competition is held each year to identify carcasses of superior quality and to educate ranchers about the production of high-quality beef and the latest in consumer trends. Interest in carcass traits can be used to select sires within a breed, a process which can increase a marbling score or tenderness of beef – attributes that customers are demanding in their beef purchases.
Taylor, who judges beef on the hoof from Vancouver to Quebec City, and is a distinguished inspector for the Canadian Beef Grading Agency (CBGA), wrote the book on the Stampede’s Quality Beef Competition . . . literally. Based on consumer and retail demands, optimal points are scored for: a rib eye that measures between 80 and 89 square centimetres; two to four millimeters of back fat; AAA marbling; a carcass weight that falls between 650 and 750 pounds; white fat; fine-grain marbling; and fine-grain meat texture.
The 2010 Quality Beef Competition boasted excellent overall results. Nearly 65 per cent of entries were graded AAA, with more than 31 per cent grading AA. Nearly half of those grading AAA – 45.1 per cent, to be exact – scored high enough to qualify for all branded beef programs, such as Sterling Silver and Certified Angus Beef.
“Our quality is very high in Canada. It makes me so proud that we’ve increased marbling like we have, and that’s a credit to the producers,” says Taylor. “We’ve set the bar high, and we’ve kept it there. In the mid-1990s, we were at a high of 30 to 33 per cent AAA, and in our low time of year, we would get down to 18 per cent AAA. Now, we’ll see up to 70 per cent AAA (at packing houses), and we don’t see anything lower than 30 per cent.”
Ordinarily, victory would have been worth $3,000 to Malterer, plus the price of the carcass. But the owner of Ponoka’s Ponderosa Farms enjoyed a special windfall this year, since a trio of regional Speckle Park producers – Codiak Acres, River Hill Stock Farm, and Six Star Speckle Park – had put up an extra bonus of $5,000 for any Speckle Park animal that won Stampede’s Quality Beef Competition.
“We’re extremely thrilled,” says Rod Remin, business manager of the Canadian Speckle Park Association. “This is the best Ken has ever done at this competition, so he’s obviously learning, and learning very quickly. He’s really put some effort into learning about what kind of animals would produce the best carcasses. We’re all quite excited to see Ken win.”
Ducherer collects $2,000, plus the value of his steer’s carcass. Malterer’s pay day continued outside the winner’s circle, since he also finished in third place for another Speckle Park entry worth $1,500. Bill Lamport of Lamport’s Herefords, based in Balzac, Alta., finished fourth, collecting $1,000, for his own Speckle Park specimen.
Besides claiming the top four positions, Speckle Parks also occupied six spots in the top 10. Steers representing the Angus, Limousin, Shorthorn, Simmental, Murray Grey, Hereford, and Charolais breeds were entered this year.
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