Steak Production and Challenges
Steak refers to meat cut across or parallel to the muscle fiber of animal. Steak can include flank steak cut from the muscles of the abdomen, Skirt steak sliced from the plate and Silverfinger steak chopped from the loins. It is obtained from cow, pigs, camel, sheep, and goats among other animals that can be consumed. Once derived from the animal, it is sold to a consumer who can either grill it or use a pan to fry. In this paper, we discuss the process involved in the production of steak, the problem related to its production, marketing, distribution, and consumption. The paper will also look at the surprise solution to one of the issues faced in the production and marketing of the beefsteak.
Section 1: Process of Steak Production and Challenges Involved
Steak Production Process
The production steak involves various steps or stages from the animal to steak meet. The process begins with a cow or calf producer who has a breeding herd of cows that breed annually and raise calves (Mental Floss, 2018). Calves weigh approximately 60 to 100 pounds when born. The calves meant for beef production are weaned within six to ten months when they weigh between 450 to 700 pounds. These calves continue to grow as the feed on pasture until they approximately reach 1,200 to 1,400 pounds before they are sent to the processing facilities or slaughterhouses.
In the processing facilities, a technician from a health agency such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) examines the animal to make sure that the animal is fit for consumption (Mental Floss, 2018). The technician oversees the safety, animal welfare standards and quality from the time the cow enters the processing facility to the point the steak is shipped to foods service establishment stores and retail for purchase by consumers (Reid, 2014). If the animal appears health after inspection, the cow is slaughtered.
During the slaughter, a stunning device is used to make the animal senseless. A worker in the processing then proceeds to slits the animal throat, and then the cow is hanged by its hind feet to allow the blood to bleed (Mental Floss, 2018). The worker lets the blood to drain entirely before initiating the process of skinning and removing the head. The blood is allowed to drain, and then workers skin the animal and remove its head.
The process of skinning is carried out with care not to damage the hide. The skin is sold for firms manufacturing leather goods. After the skin has been removed, the workers remove open the carcasses to eliminate the internal organs such as intestines and liver before splitting the body in half (Mental Floss, 2018). The next process is spraying the split carcass with water to remove the remnants of blood and the chips of bones caused by the saw. At this stage, the steak can be chopped from the animal and sold to consumers. However, for large-scale production the meet move to the aging process.
The process is aging where the beef is tagged and hanged in large coolers for about a week to improve the steak flavor and make it tender. The method allows the enzyme to break down the meet. After aging for a week, the beef is then cut into the steak. The steak can be obtained across muscles of the abdomen, loin, plate, and ribs. The chopped steak is then packaged using the MAP packing, master bagging or vacuum packing using USDA-approved containers (Mental Floss, 2018). The wrapped steak is then placed safely into boxes using hands for shipment. They are then put on trucks and transported to food service stores and retailers (Reid, 2014). Consumers can then buy the steak and either grill, panfry or cook as a sauce for consumption.
Problems/Challenges of Steak Production
The production, marketing, distribution, and consumption of Steak come with several challenges. The interest parasites that attack beef cattle cause significant economic losses to producers. These parasites affect the animal health and reduce their quality. They can also lead to the death of animals (Gunn & Loy, 2015). The producer has to incur a high cost of treatment to avert the depreciation in quality and the death of animals. Such increase in cost affects production significantly. The perceived health risk associated with consumption of meat is also another factor that affects the output of steak portrayed in medical journals and media has also influenced the use of steak meat (Sjeklocha, 2013). Many meat consumers have shifted to vegetables and other foodstuffs in fear health risk such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart diseases as well as Alzheimer’s disease. The result of the shift has been reduced demand for meat and losses to producers of beefsteak.
The cost of raising beef animals has been increasing in the past decade. The cost of the ranch has continued to increased limiting the ability of the producer to expand their production, the high cost of treatment also affects the number of animals’ producers can raise. The fluctuation in the market can also influence the value of beefsteak produced (Gunn & Loy, 2015). The meat produced domestically can fetch low prices in the international market. Similarly, limited access to financial support has particularly impacted the availability of goat steak particularly in the United States (Hovhannisy & Grigoryan, 2016). Financial institutions have continued to show skeptical of the goat beef production because of the limited available information on its profitability. Producers of meat goat have found it difficult to access funds to expand their production.
Weather patterns have also affected the production of beefsteak. The fluctuating weather conditions characterized by increased drought have limited the cowherd expansion. Drought causes pasture and water in ranches to dry leaving herd with nothing to eats (Sjeklocha, 2013). The drought has also resulted in fetal programming a condition where a pregnant animal undergoes environmental, nutritional and hormonal stress during gestation. Such stress affects the animal fertility as well as the offspring produced. Due to the changes in weather, producers have been dissuaded from growing animals for beef production.
Finally, production steak is affected by strict federal regulations concerning the treatment of pathogenic organisms that attack animals. The Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) provides a new guideline for the prescription of the feed-grade antibiotic (Sjeklocha, 2013). In the future, it's possible that VFD would apply to many feed-grade antibiotics in the market. The produced would be required to obtain a written VFD from a veterinarian before purchasing the feed grade. The restriction would also limit the injectable antibiotic used in the animal treatment.
Section 2: Unexpected Solution to Problems Facing Steak Production
Steak producers would need to overcome the challenge of federal regulations by staying informed of new guidelines and their expectations (Garver, 2017). They need to be ready to adapt to the new policies, and above all, they need to stick to science. While most beef producers feel that regulations would improve the quality of beef, some argue that the new policies only increase the cost of producing and processing meat products (Pighin et al., 2016). They state that the laws may eventually push many meat producers out of the industry. However, Dave Sjeklocha argues that the new guidelines would benefit the sector because it would improve the quality of steak sold in the market and enhance consumer confidence (Sjeklocha, 2013).
The steak processor can also overcome consumer skepticism on the consumption of steak by not denying that eating meat can cause health issues. They should rely on scientific evidence to defend against false perception (Garver, 2017). However, most beef producers and producers tend to refute the notion that eating meat can result in health risks. Some assume such allegation is created by media to paint a wrong picture of beef production. Jeff Sindelar assets that excessive consumption of meat can lead to health risk (Garver, 2017). Nevertheless, excessive use of any food can create a health risk. Therefore, producers need to focus on how steak consumption would lead to a balanced diet. They should look for what scientific evidence reveals, acknowledge the outcome of such research, and then defend their product against false perceptions (Sinha et al., 2009).
Steak producers also need to respond to the challenge of the high cost of raising animals in the short term and in the long run to allow them to increase production. Jeff Sindelar of the University of Wisconsin-Madison argues that one-way producers overcome high material costs are by looking at the cost of protein in the raw materials and that present in the finished product (Garver, 2017). Such understanding could be essential in lowering costs while maintaining the quality of animals. Most producers blame adverse economic conditions as the cause of the rise in the cost of input rather than assess the input and the output of their production (Garver, 2017). Since producers cannot change the prevailing economic conditions, then it would only be vital for them to analyze the amount of input and the desired output.
References
Garver, K. (2017, February 21). Challenges Facing the Meat and Poultry Industry…and How to Overcome Them. Retrieved from http://www.myprocessexpo.com/blog/industry-perspectives/4-challenges-facing-meat-poultry-industry-overcome/
Gunn, P. J., " Loy, D. D. (2015). Opportunities and challenges in a changing beef industry: Results of a statewide needs assessment in Iowa. Animal Industry Report, 661(1), 9.
Hovhannisyan, S. V., " Grigoryan, K. A. (2016). The main problems and features of the global and local meat production. Annals of Agrarian Science, 14(4), 315-318.
Mental Floss. (2018). Farm to Table: The 6 Stages of Getting Meat on Your Plate. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/80932/farm-table-6-stages-getting-meat-your-plate
Pighin, D., Pazos, A., Chamorro, V., Paschetta, F., Cunzolo, S., Godoy, F., ... " Grigioni, G. (2016). A contribution of beef to human health: a review of the role of the animal production systems. The Scientific World Journal, 2016.
Reid, J. (2014, October 22). Pasture to Plate: How a cow becomes a steak. Retrieved from https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/bbq/article/Pasture-to-Plate-How-a-cow-becomes-a-steak-5840104.php
Sinha, R., Cross, A. J., Graubard, B. I., Leitzmann, M. F., " Schatzkin, A. (2009). Meat intake and mortality: a prospective study of over half a million people. Archives of internal medicine, 169(6), 562-571.
Sjeklocha, D. (2013, May 29). Three Beef Industry Challenges That Won’t Go Away Soon. Retrieved from http://www.beefmagazine.com/blog/three-beef-industry-challenges-won-t-go-away-soon
