Duration: 10/01/2022 to 09/30/2027

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Beef production is the largest segment of U.S. agriculture. In 2021, cattle production represented approximately 17% of $391 billion in total agriculture cash receipts (USDA/ERS, 2022). The U.S., although having the largest fed-cattle industry in the world and being the largest producer of high-quality, grain-fed beef for domestic use and exportation, is still a net beef importer because we purchased lower-value, grass-fed beef destined for processing (USDA/ERS, 2022). Domestic and international beef markets with ever-evolving consumer preferences for protein sources, food safety concerns, international trade policies, supply chain disruption, and production technologies pose many challenges to the U.S. beef industry. COVID-19 disruption of the supply chain (Martinez et al.,2021), issues with cattle ID and traceability (Pendell and Shear, 2020), potential association between age and STEC prevalence (Yang et al., 2021), and ability to enhance beef quality with new supplement (arginine; Tuell et al., 2021) or existing technology (electrical stimulation; Wang et al., 2021) are only a few of emerging areas that have been researched by the scientists of this group and are important for the competitiveness of U.S beef products.

 

Therefore, there is a critical need for enhancing the competitive edge of U.S. beef in both domestic and international markets. This need, if unmet, will leave the beef industry with both technological and financial uncertainty and ultimately loss of competitiveness in the global market as a commodity. In addition to scientific focus, this is also a policy matter for the U.S. government, especially for the Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to fund and facilitate collaboration among animal, meat, and economic researchers in the U.S. to solve complex issues confronting the U.S. beef industry as it competes in a global market. A natural consortium of animal, meat, and economic scientists has existed for the last few decades and committee members of this multistate project have made significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the areas of cattle production, beef processing, meat quality and safety, nutrition, consumer preferences, consumer demands, international trade policies, biosecurity, and supply chain management. Such contributions have propelled changes in animal production, meat processing, and the structure of the industry as beef markets continue to evolve. The multi-disciplinary research team has decided to renew its effort to focus on enhancing U.S. beef values from farm to fork to help the U.S. beef industry meet the ever-increasing and diverse demands for beef products.

Related, Current and Previous Work

PREVIOUS WORK

Since the start of the multistate research committee, the members have made significant contributions the beef industry from many different factors.  Collaboration of ideas and projects among agricultural economists, animal scientists, and meat scientists has been a strength of the committee and the committee aims to strengthen the collaboration among members and across disciplines during the five years of this proposal. 

 

Issues in biosecurity in the U.S. beef supply chain

Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Mississippi stations have been involved in assessing issues within the U.S. beef supply chain. Pudenz et al. (2021) evaluated biosecurity adoption and feasibility-of-adoption perceptions for U.S. cattle producers and reported low adoption of the three strongly recommended pre-outbreak practices: biosecurity manager, written operation-specific enhanced biosecurity plan, and line of separation. Only during an FMD outbreak did a producer adopt these practices. Their findings suggest that adoption of the strongly recommended pre-outbreak practices facilitates a quicker and more effective U.S. cattle industry response to an FMD outbreak. McKendree et al. (2021) conducted a choice experiment with firm operators in decision-making scenarios to capture information on risk management approaches. Their experiment provided insights into how managers approach multiple risks when facing resource constraints and what firms believe to be useful in biosecurity and disease outbreaks. Martinez et al. (2021) evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cattle market reported million-dollar losses due to the shutdown of not only processing plants but foodservice facilities, resulting in lower prices.

 

Issues in domestic and international beef markets

California, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Tennessee stations have been involved in researching issues associated with domestic and international markets. Tonsor et al. (2021) and Lusk et al. (2021) used household-level data from continuous consumers in the Meat Demand Monitor, funded in part by the Beef Checkoff, which provided a host of domestic beef demand insights. In similar research, Mitchell et al. (2021) found that cost-share policies might be an effective way of encouraging participation for feeder cattle sellers and could serve as an alternative to mandating traceability. Pendell and Shear (2020) utilized a partial equilibrium model to determine the impacts of a beef cattle animal ID and traceability system in the United States. In this research, they assumed that if there are no changes in domestic and international demand for U.S. beef, producers at the wholesale, slaughter, and feeder levels lose $475 million, $1,143 million, and $1,291 million, respectively, in a 10-year discounted cumulative producer surplus. The producers need a 17.7 and 1.9% increase in international and domestic beef demand to completely cover the cost, respectively. The research in Tennessee is in line with supporting a better understanding of beef production, health, and biosecurity to support the competitiveness and value of U.S. beef. Muhammad et al. (2020) examined the competitiveness of US beef in South Korea and assessed how the US-Korea free trade agreement (KORUS) impacted preferences for imported beef products by exporting sources (USA, Australia, and the rest of the world). Since KORUS entered into force in 2012, US beef exports to Korea have increased 87% and the US is now the leading beef exporter to Korea. Martinez et al (2021) examined factors impacting feeder cattle prices at a monthly video auction in Tennessee by using a hedonic model. They showed how price varies across sale months for steers and heifers suggesting opportune times to market gender-specific lots.

 

Issues in the safety of beef products

Nevada station has the most active food safety program. Shebs et al. (2020) evaluated bacteriophages and organic acids on subprimal as microbial prevention. The authors concluded that phages reduced Shiga Toxin E. coil (STEC) by 1.4 logs; whereas organic acids only had a 0.5 log reduction. The phage proved to be a more effective antimicrobial than organic acids including lactic acid and peroxyacetic acid. Shebs-Maurine et al. (2020) evaluated the efficacy of bacteriophages to prevent the “big six” O157 STEC in ground beef or contaminated trim. The efficacy of the bacteriophages was between 96.2% to 99.9% in vitro. When used in contaminated trim, there was a log reduction from 0.7 to 1.3 log. These findings support the extension of bacteriophages as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substance by the FDA. Yang et al. (2021) evaluated the impacts of grain-based and grass-based feeding systems on the prevalence of STEC in the feces of beef cattle and assess the association between fecal microbiome and STEC prevalence. The authors reported the same level of reduction from baseline to harvest in the prevalence of general STEC and acid-resistant STEC. Fecal bacterial communities from grass-fed cattle had decreased alpha diversity at harvest but no association between phyla or genera abundances and fecal STEC population was found. They also suggested age might play a more important role in proteobacteria abundance and the impact of diet should be considered in conjunction with other factors such as age, season, and expected external stresses to estimate the risk of the spread of fecal pathogens.  Directly at the consumer level, Hunt et al (2021) evaluated the safety of sous vide cooking guidance that included recommended cooking temperatures as low as 115 ˚F. After the research was published, the cooking guidance provided by the sous vide company was changed.   

 

Issues cattle production and beef quality

This research topic involves most of the stations, including California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Indiana, Tennessee, Nevada, and Mississippi. Hall et al. (2021), from Idaho, found that a range-based system resulted in less calf weight and return per cow (- $60.50) than an irrigated cow/calf (IRR) system. Walker-Shira et al. (2021) provided evidence that genetic variations in ESR1 play an important role in the regulation of bone mineralization in heifers. In Indiana, Tuell et al. (2021) fed arginine and lysine to cattle and displayed steaks on retail cases for 7 days to find that the steak color from arginine-supplemented cattle had better color stability due to the delaying of mitochondrial-mediated apoptotic processes. Research from Kentucky (Zhai et al, 2021) showed dietary ractopamine increased expression of enzymes involved in fatty acid degradation and decreased expression of enzymes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, which may alter protein synthesis in ractopamine-fed cattle. In California, Bolkenov et al. (2021) supplemented steers with a high dosage of red macroalgae and found that the treatment resulted in a higher total microbial count and darker meat, thus lowering the shelf-life. From Tenesse, Clemmons et al. (2021) identified bacteria includes approximately 30% from genus Prevotella, followed by Succiniclasticum, and Ruminococcus acquired through the near-total rumen content exchange method, showing potential for host control on the rumen microbiome, which will be important for the successful conversion of low-quality feedstuffs to high-quality protein, linked to feeding efficiency, methane production, and other critical production traits.

 

Wang et al. (2021) from Mississippi and Idaho suggested that electrical stimulation can alter the content of water-soluble flavor compounds such as increased ornithine by 15 to 19 nmol/g, glutamic acid by 213 to 247 nmol/g, and asparagine by 20 to 28 nmol/g. Ramanathan et al. (2021) from Kentucky found that seven proteins were differentially abundant (p < 0.05) in longissimus lumborum and psoas on day 3 of the display. In longissimus lumborum steaks, 7 proteins were more abundant (p < 0.05) on day 3 than on day 6 of retail display. The finding indicated that differential abundance of mitochondrial proteome could contribute to the variations in color stability of beef longissimus lumborum and psoas major muscles during retail display. Arp et al. (2021), from Colorado, found that electrical stimulation (ES) has an effect on LL muscle pH at 3 h postmortem but did not affect the pH at post-rigor and suggested that the use of low ES voltage has minimal influence on the shear force. Also, the variation of beef color stability between LL and PM is due to the differences in mitochondrial proteome components (NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) flavoprotein, 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase, and pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 component subunit, etc.). The study suggested other biochemical mechanisms behind those differences and their relationship with color stability (Nair et al., 2021). From Nebraska, Henriott et al. (2020) investigated the effects of packaging and freezing on the shelf-life color of beef and found that early freezing (day 0) combined with oxygen-permeable packages provided the greatest oxymyoglobin percentage, associated with the best color. Ribeiro et al. (2020) observed that dry-aged beef had had better lipid stability during retail display than wet-aged beef regardless of dry-aging relative humidity. Ribeiro et al. (2021) determined that aging did not affect the color of dark-cutter steaks. From Indiana, Setyabrata et al. (2021) identified flavor compounds in grass-fed beef loins through different types of aging (dry, wet, and dry in a bag). Their data suggested that there was a greater concentration of volatile compounds in the dry-aged grass-fed beef than the wet-aged. The decrease of terpenoid and steroid lipid groups was suggested to reduce the undesirable flavors commonly perceived in grass-fed beef. Xue et al. (2021) used dry-aged beef crust as an ingredient in a novel approach to reducing food waste. The authors found that it was an acceptable ingredient in beef patties with noted roasted and umami flavors.

 

Issues in nutritional composition and attributes of beef

This topic has been researched by California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, Nevada, and Indiana. Barragán-Hernández et al. (2021) from California improved the nutrient profile of beef and identified constituents of beef that influence flavor and healthfulness. Juárez et al (2021) created knowledge on the relationship between human disease mechanisms and the nutritional profile of red meat, enabling traditional red meat to continue serving as a widely consumed nutrient-dense food. Vahmani et al. (2020, 2021) studied how rumen-derived fatty acids including trans fatty acids affect beef quality and healthfulness, so did Vahmani et al. (2020), who increased n-3 fatty acids in ruminant fat by feeding cattle with different n-3 fatty acid-rich sources. From Nevada, De Mello conducted research to identify novel genetic biomarkers for beef quality traits and initiated investigations to identify the epigenetic role of beef-derived RNAs on human health. When adding tannin extract from Quebracho Colorado wood to beef patties, the PI found that the ingredient prevented free radical formation at a 1.5% level but this level decreased in tenderness, softness, juiciness, and overall liking for the product (Fruet et al., 2020). In addition, Giotto et al. (2020) reported that the corn diet increased C16:0 and lower C18:0, compared with distillers grains, in flat iron steaks; whereas dry distillers grains increased ω6 FA.

 

Our long-term goal is to provide the U.S. beef industry with knowledge bases and technological tools to enhance its competitiveness in the global meat markets.

Objectives

1. Improve the knowledge base of biosecurity issues to mitigate the risk of adverse health or disease events within the U.S. beef supply chain.
   
2. Identify domestic and international market risks associated with the U.S. beef supply chain and factors that enhance the marketability and competitiveness of U.S. beef products, including variety meats.
   
3. Identify antemortem and postmortem food safety risks in U.S. beef production and develop novel technologies to enhance product safety.
   
4. Identify antemortem and postmortem factors that impact beef quality and develop and/or application of novel products and technologies to improve sustained profitability of the U.S. beef production system, beef quality attributes, product shelf life, and nutritional composition.
   
5. Improve the knowledge base of nutritional components in beef and develop strategies to enhance nutritional values of U.S. beef products.
   

Methods

Objective #1: Improve the knowledge base of biosecurity issues to mitigate the risk of adverse health or disease events within the U.S. beef supply chain.

The stations involved in this objective will be Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Tennessee and Mississippi have and will continue to focus on basic and applied research to examine willingness to pay and invest in biosecurity related to animal disposal capacity, the effects of animal health events on agribusiness firm values, and the adoption of biosecurity practices and the impacts on business continuity during disease outbreaks. In understanding how biosecurity adoption can influence business continuity, multiple analyses of how COVID-19 impacted the beef industry continue to be conducted. These analyses show the substantial impact on the supply chain, markets, prices, transportation, and consumers, in addition to improving understanding of biosecurity policies to mitigate the risks of adverse health or disease events within the U.S. beef industry. Lastly, they can determine how alternative indemnity policy situations and governmental cost-share programs impact voluntary biosecurity efforts and hence the competitiveness of U.S. beef. Kansas has a forthcoming publication titled “U.S. Cattle Producer Adoption of Secure Beef Supply Plan Enhanced Biosecurity Practices and Food-and-Mouth Disease Preparedness.” This will lead to further research within the multistate group. North Dakota will continue to deepen our understanding of factors that affect beef quality, tenderness, and consumer preference as we produce the highest quality and safest been in the world. Michigan will continue to establish the relationship between the management of price risk, the largest risk for cattle producers, and animal health risk mitigation, which is an increasingly important risk in fixed operation budgets. These activities are in line with supporting a better understanding of beef production, health, and biosecurity to support the competitiveness and value of the U.S.

Description of potential work among station and historic or ongoing collaborative efforts:

• Tennessee (Myer, Martinez, and Kojima), Michigan (McKendree), Kansas (Tonsor and Pendell), and Mississippi (Maples): These collaborations were related to several projects with continued ongoing efforts. These projects include multiple outcomes related to the effects of COVID-19 on the beef and agricultural supply chain. Outcomes included peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and outreach efforts:

 

Objective #2: Identify domestic and international market risks associated with the U.S. beef supply chain and factors that enhance the marketability and competitiveness of U.S. beef products, including variety meats.

Stations involved in this objective include California, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada, North Dakota, and Tennessee. Tennessee is working on the effects of farm practices on international trade relationships. Furthermore, they are looking at market values to the government subsidizing biosecurity adoption. Kansas and Kentucky’s long-term goal is to identify ongoing market risk associated with domestic livestock protocols to the U.S. beef industry. This strategy could improve the quality, safety, and domestic and international marketability of U.S. beef products by examining palatability attributes, increasing shelf life, developing novel products from variety meat items, and developing innovative carcass fabrication techniques. California has a priority of investigating price discovery issues in the fed cattle market. Currently, they have been working on how ground beef and bison Meat-Eating-Quality (MEQ) attributes affect consumer market valuation of these products. Colorado continues to be actively engaged in several research projects during the past year focusing on palatability, processing, and marketing of beef. Nevada is currently developing a novel technology based on transcriptomics analysis to accurately predict beef tenderness and allow meat packing companies to better market their beef using tenderness claims based on the ASTM values. Idaho has focused on beef shelf life and has recently been awarded grants to use novel natural antioxidants to improve ground beef shelf life. North Dakota continues to provide unique understanding of how carcass weight impacts postmortem development of beef quality attributes. Overall, the group plans to identify ongoing market risk associated with domestic livestock protocols to the U.S. beef industry and improve quality, safety, and domestic and international marketability of U.S. beef products by examining palatability attributes, developing and applying novel food safety interventions, exploring metagenomics to investigate food safety and antimicrobial resistance, increasing shelf life, developing novel products from various meat items, and developing innovate carcass fabrication techniques.

 

Description of potential work among station and historic or ongoing collaborative efforts:

• Idaho (Bass and Colle), North Dakota (Maddock), Texas (Savell, Griffin, Lawrence, Tennant, Lucherk), Florida (Carr), Georgia (Pringle), Colorado (Morgan and Edwards-Callaway), Oklahoma (Mafi and Pfeiffer), Illinois (Harsh), Kansas (O’Quinn), Ohio (Garcia), and South Dakota (Underwood): The collaborators are currently working on the 2021 National Beef Quality Audit.
• CA (Yang and Vahmani) and NV (de Mello): Nutritional values of beef and coli risk in beef production.

 

Objective #3: Identify antemortem and postmortem food safety risks in U.S. beef production and develop novel technologies to enhance product safety.

Stations involved in this objective include California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Nevada. Colorado has been actively engaged in research focused on the prevention of food-borne illness by beef products. Nevada is currently selecting broad-spectrum bacteriophages able to lyse all USDA-adulterant STECs.  Kansas plans to develop and apply novel food safety interventions, to explore metagenomics to investigate food safety and antimicrobial resistance. Nebraska plans to work on the safety of sous vide cooked beef, survival, and growth of Pseudomonas and other spoilage microorganisms in raw and cooked beef products. Additional work has been conducted to understand the color change in raw beef caused by high-pressure processing. California will use microbiome as an assessment tool to understand safety risk throughout beef supply chain. The goal is to improve food safety through sustainable methods.

 

Description of potential work among station and historic or ongoing collaborative efforts:

• Potential work between California (Yang), Colorado (Belk), Kansas (Chao, Pendell), Nebraska (Sullivan), and Nevada (de Mello) will focus on the reduction of pathogens in meat through sustainable, natural interventions.

 

1. Objective #4: Identify antemortem and postmortem factors that impact beef quality and develop and/or application of novel products and technologies to improve sustained profitability of the U.S. beef production system, beef quality attributes, product shelf life, and nutritional composition.

 

Stations involved in objective 4 include California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Indiana, Tennessee, Nevada, and Mississippi. California believes that beef production can be improved with more accurate predictions of animal growth and carcass composition. The efficiency of production studies has been published, as well as models for ruminant animals’ environmental footprint. Nevada is working to determine the best biomarkers for tenderness as traditional genes associated with enzyme activity may not be. Indiana’s goal is to establish novel meat aging processes that can be applied to improve the quality attributes of culled-cow beef and foster the profitability and sustainability of the beef industry. Our central hypothesis is that, through the application of optimal dry-aging, the palatability attributes of meat will be significantly improved via the liberation of flavor-related compounds. Furthermore, they will work to identify and develop novel meat or non-meat ingredients to create values from underutilized low-value sources. Idaho continues to evaluate strategies to improve tenderness and shelf-life of beef products via alternative fabrication and antioxidant use, respectively. Colorado is conducting a comparison between the novel Nix colorimeter and HunterLab® colorimeter as an alternative for measuring beef color. Mississippi will move forward with beef flavor chemistry research, elucidating the postmortem metabolism of water-soluble flavor compounds.

 

Description of potential work among station and historic or ongoing collaborative efforts:

• California (Oltjen) and Nevada (Fonseca): Future collaboration for water and resource use in beef production.
• Idaho (Bass) and Nebraska (Calkins): Hosted a dry-aging extension workshop for industry personnel and students.
• Idaho (Bass and Colle), Nevada (de Mello), and Mississippi (Dinh): Conducted a project looking at the effect of electrical stimulation on flavor development.
• Mississippi, Nebraska (Calkins), and Texas: Meat research has focused on three main areas. These are the relationship of oxidative stress to meat tenderness, beef color during frozen storage, dry aging, and the impacts of vitamin E supplementation on dry-aged beef.
• Nebraska (Sullivan) and Oklahoma: Research to understand the color change in raw beef caused by high-pressure processing.
• Idaho (Bass and Colle), Indiana (Kim), and Texas: Evaluating metabolomics and flavor compounds in dry-aged beef.
• Kansas (Chao): continued effort to understand the roles of connective tissues in beef quality.
• Kentucky (Suman): continued unique effort to use proteomics to elucidate post-translational modifications of myoglobin and meat color stability.

 

Objective #5: Improve the knowledge base of nutritional components in beef and develop strategies to enhance the nutritional values of U.S. beef products.

Stations involved in this objective include California, Colorado, and Nevada. Colorado plans to complete a nutritional comparison of animal and plant proteins to determine the variations between different protein sources. California continues to investigate ways to improve the nutrient profile of beef, identify constituents of beef that influence flavor and healthfulness, and create knowledge on the relationship between human disease mechanisms and the nutritional profile of red meat. They plan to study how rumen-derived fatty acids including trans fatty acids affect beef quality and healthfulness. Furthermore, they are currently investigating the effects of beef trans fatty acids on adiposity, insulin and glucose homeostasis, and inflammation in diet-induced obese/diabetic mice. Lastly, they are investigating how different beef production systems/feeding strategies influence the content and profiles of trans fatty acids in beef. Nevada is evaluating beef-derived miRs which resist digestion and may be absorbed in mice intestines. Additionally, exogenous microRNAs are absorbed in the intestine and may modulate human health. The findings of this research will help direct future efforts to enhance the nutritional value of beef which will help to enhance the competitiveness of nutritional values the US beef.

 

Description of potential work among station and historic or ongoing collaborative efforts:

• Potential work between California (Vahmani), Colorado (Nair), and Nevada (de Mello) could focus on ways to improve the nutrient profile of beef, identify constituents of beef that influence flavor and healthfulness, and create knowledge on the relationship between human disease mechanisms and the nutritional profile of red meat.

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

• Submit an annual report each year.
• Disseminate findings to industry and government groups to increase the impacts of this consortium on beef production, trade, and public policies by members making at least 10 invited presentations at meetings and/or training programs with audiences of beef producers, meat industry, or government personnel each year.
• Publish at least 30 academic papers (peer-reviewed articles, fact sheets, conference proceedings, Experiment Station reports, etc.) on issues directly stemming from this project each year. Those stemming from committee member collaboration and cross-discipline collaboration will be noted and tracked.

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

• Novel technologies developed by research conducted by this multistate group will be adopted by beef producers and meat packing companies.
• Data generated by this multistate group will provide the industry with foundational knowledge to optimize their operations.
• The industry will have access to data about consumer demands and will be able to incorporate this information into their production decisions.
• The industry will be able to take advantage of price premiums to enhance their long-term profitability.
• The industry will be able to introduce more efficient production and processing practices to meet consumer needs.
• The industry will be better informed of production practices to produce a wholesome and sustainable product.
• The industry will have greater insight on how changes in market participant behavior are affecting the efficiency of the beef marketing system as well as how beef quality and production efficiency affect industry participant profitability.
• Government agencies, food-related associations and non-profit organizations will have access to groundbreaking data reporting novel information about how nutritional values of beef should be used in dietary programs to improve growth, development, and prevent chronic diseases.
• Project outcomes will spur industry adoption of new fabrication, processing, and related developments to the beef industry. This will lead to increased competitiveness of the U.S. beef industry in both domestic and international markets.

Milestones

(2023):Hold at least one joint organized symposium at agricultural economics, animal science, and/or meat science professional annual meeting.

(2024):Have at least one project member provide a keynote or similarly high-profile presentation related to this project's objectives.

(2025):Report evidence of increased competitiveness and values of U.S. beef by relating available data of beef production, consumption, export, to research activities from the committee that have been adopted by industry.

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

As outlined in the “Previous Work” section, the participants have a history of information sharing activities, cooperation, and productivity. Many of the project scientists have been involved in this effort previously, some for decades. Additionally, their expertise and productivity are well documented in previous accomplishment reports. We have inquiries from new scientists, who will enhance the scope and multidisciplinary nature of the project. Several of the scientists involved in this project have extension appointments. Collaboration among these scientists will enhance the dissemination of research results to the general public through presentations and popular publications. Thankfully, several of the Outcomes and Impacts lend themselves to outreach education activities. Outreach in the form of various media can be used to educate producers, processors, policy makers, and consumers. The scopes of this project are specific to beef cattle and beef products but broad enough from the scientific approach that encompasses many disciplines and produces no artificial boundaries for participation and dissemination of findings.

 

We will promote the flow of new information between the laboratory and industry to ultimately benefit beef consumers. It is intended that the preparation of peer-reviewed publications, presentations at professional meetings, and other means of disseminating project results to professional audiences be part of the ongoing project effort. Most of the project scientists interact with personnel at their respective institutions and regional and national levels. Specifically, members of this proposal are active in professional societies such as the American Meat Science Association, American Society of Animal Science, Agriculture and Applied Economics Association and regional groups such as the Southern Agricultural Economics Association and Western Agricultural Economics Association. The committee members will present research findings as oral and poster presentations at these societies’ professional meetings. These meetings encourage information sharing and discussion between scientists, industry representatives, government officials and even undergraduate and graduate students.

 

The reach of this committee expands beyond its members and peers.  Members of this committee interact with beef producers, meat processors, and associated industry personnel on a regular basis through presentations, technical guidance, and in formal classroom settings. Outreach is also directly achieved by delivering the information generated by this group through training programs and certification courses that allow the continuous improvement and development of the meatpacking labor force. In addition, committee members prepared and report research summaries for producer and processor audiences for publication as trade magazines, blogs, newsletters and other similar formats.  As noted previously, several members have formal extension appointments while others engage in outreach as an extension of their other programming.  This group also will work collaboratively with industry and government leaders to provide additional insight into solutions for many of the emerging challenges facing the livestock and meat industries. This will be accomplished by interacting with stakeholders at the local and regional level, presenting research, and requesting their input into research directions for the future and their critique of ongoing research. When appropriate, published proceedings or other published work will be released to the public.

 

HISTORY OF COOPERATION

CA, NV: water and resource use in beef production

ID, NE: Dry-aging extension workshop for industry personnel and students.

MS, NE, TX: oxidative stress and meat tenderness, dry aging, and the impacts of vitamin E supplementation on dry-aged beef.

NE, OK: color change in raw beef caused by high-pressure processing.

ID, ND, TX, FL, GA, CO, OK, IL, KS, OH, SD: National Beef Quality Audit.

ID, TX: metabolomics and flavor compounds in dry-aged beef.

KY, MS: Dinh, T., Li, S., Chen, J., Zhu, H., & Suman, S. P. (2021). Post-translational modification of myoglobin in post-rigor longissimus lumborum muscle from beef cattle injected with hydrogen peroxide. The 74th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association.

ID, MS: Wang, S., To, K. V., Dahlgren, C., Sajeev, D., Rivera, D., Schilling, M. W., Suman, S., Dinh, T. (2021). Lean color and oxidative stress biomarkers in post-rigor longissimus muscle from beef cattle injected with hydrogen peroxide. The 74th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association

TN, MS: Anderson, J., D. Anderson, D. Brothers, J. Dorfman, K. Guidry, J. E. Holmes, J. Maples, J. Thompson, and J. Worley. “Estimate of Economic Losses by Contract Growers in the Poultry Sector due to COVID-19.” Staff Paper. SP012020. University of Arkansas. 2020.

TN, MS: Martinez, C., J. Maples, and J. Benavidez. "Beef cattle markets and covid‐19." Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 43.1 (2021): 304-314.

TN, MS: Maples, J., J. Thompson, J. Anderson, and D. Anderson. “Estimating COVID-19 Impacts on the Broiler Industry.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 43(1). 2021.

MS, MI: Weersink, A., M. Von Massow, N. Bannon, J. Ifft, J. Maples, K. McEwan, M. McKendree, C. Nicholson, A. Novakovic, A. Rangarajan, T. Richards, B. Rickard, J. Rude, M. Schipanski, G. Schnitkey, L. Schultz, D. Schuurman, K. Schwartzkopf-Genswein, M. Stecphenson, J. Thompson, and K. Wood. “COVID-19 and the Agri-Food System in the United States and Canada.” Agricultural Systems. 188. 2021.

TN, KS: Thompson, J.M., D.L. Pendell, A.D. Hagerman, and K.K. Johnson. “International Trade Implications of Highly Pathogenic Poultry Disease Events.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. 49(3). 2020.

MS, NV: Cavender, A.M., Giotto, F.M., Miller, D., Dinh, T., de Mello A.S. 2020. Effects of dry and wet aging on volatile and amino acid profile of USDA Choice and Prime strip loins. The 73^rd Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association / 66^th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology.

MS, NE: Holtcamp, A.J., Sukumaran, A.T., Schnedler, A.E., McClenton, B.J., Kunze, E., Calkins, C.R., Karisch, B.B., Burnett, D.D., Dinh, T.T. (2019). Effects of feeding endophyte-infected tall fescue seeds to stocker Angus steers on retail quality attributes of beef strip steaks. Meat Science, 149, 31-39.

MS, NV: Sajeev, D., Thames, H. T., Cobb, H. C., Sukumaran, A. T., Holtcamp, A, J., Cavender, A., de Mello, A., & Dinh, T. T. N. 2019. Effects of electrostatic spray and natural antioxidants on sensory quality and color of grass- finished beef strip steaks. 2019 Joint ASAS/CSAS Annual Meeting, Austin, TX.

NE, NV: Fruet, A. P. B., Nörnberg, J. L., Calkins, C., De Mello, A. (2019) Effects of different antioxidants on quality of beef patties from steers fed low-moisture distillers grains. Meat Science 154:119-125.

MS, NE: Holtcamp, Alexander J., Anuraj T. Sukumaran, Abigail E. Schnedler, Brandon J. McClenton, Emery Kunze, Chris R. Calkins, Brandi B. Karisch, Derris D. Burnett, Thu T.N. Dinh. (2019). Effects of feeding endophyte-infected tall fescue seeds to stocker Angus steers on retail quality attributes of beef strip steaks. Meat Science 149:31-39.

NV, NE: Fruet, A.P.B., Nörnberg, J.L., Calkins, C.R., de Mello, A.S. 2019, "Effects of different antioxidants on quality of beef patties from steers fed low-moisture distillers grains" Meat Science. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174018310477

CO, ID: Acheson, R., D. Woerner, M.J. Colle, C.E. Walenciak, and P.D. Bass. 2018. Distribution of marbling throughout the Longissimus lumborum of beef carcasses using and instrument-grading system. Meat and Muscle Biology. 2:303-308.

Organization/Governance

All members of the technical committee are eligible for office, regardless of sponsoring agency affiliation. The chairperson, in consultation with the administrative advisor, notifies the technical committee members of the time and place of meetings and presides at meetings of the technical committee. The chairperson is responsible for preparing or supervising the preparation of the annual report of the regional project. The vice-chairperson is responsible for the organization of the annual meeting and the preparation of the agenda. The secretary records the minutes and performs other duties assigned by the technical committee or the administrative advisor. The leadership of the technical committee consists of a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and secretary. Nominations are taken from the floor at the annual meeting for the secretary. Secretary moves up to vice-chairperson the next year and the vice-chairperson moves up to chairperson. The design of this project is to facilitate interaction between economists and animal/meat scientists to improve the competitiveness and value of U.S. beef. The committee is organized to have a balance of committee members from the scientific disciplines of agricultural economics and animal/meat science. Attempts will be made to rotate leadership alternate years between animal/meat scientists and agricultural economists.

 

Recently leadership has been held by animal scientists. At the most recent W4177 annual meeting an agricultural economist accepted the nomination for secretary to begin reestablishing the rotation. Through the representation of both disciplines in the leadership of the committee, increasing collaborations between animal/meat scientists and agricultural economists on this project can be prioritized.

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Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MS, ND, NE, OK, OR, TN, TX

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

Tyson Foods