From DEXA to the new beef IMF percentage trait: ALMTech revolutionises carcase measurement

For that reason, objectively measuring those two things - the amount of saleable meat and how well it eats - is critical.

This is how meat scientist Professor Graham Gardner describes the thinking behind what has arguably been one of the beef industry's greatest technological projects - developing, calibrating and now commercially rolling out a suit of carcase measurement technology that is revolutionising eating quality grading and lean meat yield assessment.

Called the ALMTech project, the research collaboration that Dr Gardner heads up from Murdoch University in Western Australia has been flat out over the past six years coming up with a range of cutting-edge pieces of equipment. Most are for implementation in processing plants but live animal measurements have not gone unattended.

When the team started in 2016, there was one commercialised device installed in an abattoir in Australia at chain speed - a lamb dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, or DEXA, unit in the JBS Bordertown facility in South Australia.

Today there are 19 sites around the country, mostly abattoirs but also feedlots, with some form of objective carcase measurement technology in operation.

In some cases, it has been installed for testing but in many it is now fully commercially utilised to underpin value-based pricing signals.

Half the country's lamb kill is now measured with DEXA.

By 2040, it is estimated that ALMTech will have generated as much as $510 million extra for the beef, lamb and pork industries in Australia.

Advanced measurements of red meat quality and quantity will enhance the Australian beef, lamb and pork industries' ability to respond to demands and capture value-chain price differentials, according to the team.

The ALMTech project is now in its final year, which means the focus is on commercialisation of the technologies, Dr Gardner said in an update on the work presented to the Beefex22 conference in Brisbane this month.

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Many of the eating quality technologies are now accredited for commercial use.

Some of the fancy camera technologies, including those which image the eye-muscle and predict the rib-eye grading traits, were able to be trialled by delegates at Beefex22.

These included the Masterbeef Samsung phone app, the QFOM device by Frontmatec, and the Video Image Analysis, or VIAScan, system by Marel.

"These cameras take the subjectivity and guess-work out of grading carcases," Dr Gardiner said.

A brand new trait for beef has also just been released - intramuscular fat percentage - and many companies are already adapting devices to predict it.

"It represents the total fat you can extract from a loin muscle," Dr Gardiner explained.

"This is not replacing visual marbling grade, it is designed to run parallel to it.

"In the existing international market, using Ausmeat marble scores you can't value some products.

"An Ausmeat marble score of 9 is equal to 28 IMF percentage units but anyone in the Angus or Wagyu industry targeting the Jap ox market knows IMF levels go higher than that.

"Accounting for that is a key value-add to this trait."

In the lean meat yield tech space, DEXA - the most accurate, best known but also the most expensive - is now widely used in the lamb game and it is being rolled out in beef, with a system in place at Teys' Rockhampton plant.

"We also have surface imaging tech at the mid range of expense and for smaller plants, the solutions include a microwave handheld device - which can also be deployed for live animals," Dr Gardiner said.

A second device that can be used in a race to give a three dimensional image of the carcase, from which you can predict fat depth, is also available in the live animal measurement space.

Dr Gardiner said both were getting close to being available commercially for feedlot industry.

The next holy grail, he said, would be measuring IMF in live animals.

"We have a few non-penetrative techs showing promise for potential future adaption," he said.

With the development of technologies comes a big new data flow and it was crucial it be put to use by the industry, Dr Gardiner said.

"So we've been working on new genetic tools and breeding values that make use of the data, along with systems to improve carcase compliance to grids and enhancing feedback systems," he said.

"We have been incorporating measurement data into the beef MSA model and cut weight prediction systems have been developed. We've got benchmarking for boning rooms and also optimisation systems for abattoirs such that they can extract more value from the carcase."

The ALMTech project is supported by funding from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, in partnership with Meat & Livestock Australia, the Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Australian Pork Limited, commercial companies, state departments and universities.