ABSTRACT
Beef cattle breeders, in their decision to pitch in their lot with a particular breed of cattle or in their hesitance to do so, are influenced by a great number of factors. One of the factors is the knowledge that breed selection commits them to the production of beef that will fall into a certain category of "quality" in terms of their particular market. A demand for fatter beef is an unlikely change. The dairy breeds have the lowest muscle to bone ratio, followed by the British beef breeds, and with the Continental cattle leading the way. Work done initially in Australia, and repeated in many other places with other breeds, has shown that in normal steers the differences in the distribution of muscle weight, and hence in the proportions of red meat in various "cuts," is extremely small and of little economic significance.
