British Blue scoops inaugural Beeflink title
A U+3 carcass from Shropshire farmer Peter Gore beat off better grading carcasses, including several E graded entries, to scoop the championship in the inaugural ABP/Asda Beeflink carcass competition in which the championship was decided not on EUROP grading, but on retail meat yield value.
Entered by Shrewsbury-based Mr Gore, the a British Blue cross steer carcass weighed 387.8kg at 23 months and four days old and gave a 0.82% greater return than the first placed young bull, an E2 graded 379.2kg Limousin cross from C I Thomas, Chirbury, Shropshire. It also gave a 1.09% greater return than the first placed heifer carcass, an E3 classified 405.6kg
Asda senior red meat trader Jim Viggars said boning out the carcasses to determine the champion had shown the value of assessing carcasses based on their yield and value rather than simply on the EUROP grading classification.
“The introduction of video image analysis (VIA) to all ABP abattoirs supplying Asda will allow us to gain this information on the slaughter line when the carcass is whole,” he said.