By Patti Wilson Contributing Editor

Say the word beef. What image shows up in your head? I’m 99 percent sure it will be a burger or steak, probably grilled, roasted or fried. You can smell it. It is a beautiful thing, including potatoes.

This portion of any beef animal constitutes only about 60 percent of that critter. The remaining 40 percent, most of which is referred to as the “drop,” makes almost 10 percent of the value of a fed steer. It is something cattle producers rarely think about, and none of us take seriously. Until our cattle reach the kill floor at the packing plant, it seems unimportant.

Many thanks go to Darrell Peel of Oklahoma State University and his article, “Understanding Beef Byproduct Values,” which ran in a March 4, 2024, page of The Cattle Range website. This is where we begin, examining the financial value of that which is most often forgotten.

Don’t Forget the Money

According to Peel, “Over the last 15 years, steer byproduct values have averaged $11.77 per cwt. on a liveweight basis. That is roughly $165 per head, or about 9.5 percent of liveweight of the total value of a fed steer.”

The products included in byproduct values contain an incredible list of drop items that most of us are familiar with; I cannot help but think that this tally increases at the pace of technology.

Edible offal naturally is most valuable and is shipped mainly overseas. Offal includes liver, tongue, tripe, heart, oxtail, sweetbreads, edible tallow, and cheek and head meat. Some of these products remain in the United States and are used in highly processed foods such as hot dogs.

Exported edible byproducts are in demand by foreign markets because they are segregated, chilled and processed under strict sanitary conditions and inspected by the U.S. Meat Inspection Service. In a Sept. 1, 2011, article on the Amber Waves website, Marty, Johnson and Mathews wrote that demand for U.S. byproducts is high because of its “superior quality and low price relative to domestic products.” They also noted over a 10-year period “Byproducts accounted for over 35 percent (volume) of U.S. beef and veal exports.” The Amber Waves article also took note of the importance of this market to the pork industry.

Edible byproducts are also termed “variety meats,” no doubt a more marketable and acceptable term than those harvested items down the list of the drop. Not to be forgotten is the edible tallow reclaimed from byproducts used for cooking and manufacture of processed foods. Edible-grade tallow is also used in cosmetics and soap production.

Inedible tallow contributes to the production of diesel fuel, pet foods, lubricants, cleaning products, inks, glues, solvents, explosives, rubber, tires, paints and crayons to name just a few items gleaned from something many of us would give no thought to, or consider worthless.

Hides play a significant role in the value of byproducts, with many being exported. One always thinks of clothing items like shoes or coats, but the automobile industry is also a major consumer of hides, as is the sporting goods industry. Most ball sports utilize leather in the production of their equipment.

Potentially, the items with the most monetary value are gallstones and fetal blood serum.

“Each of the many byproduct items operates in a separate market with variable values and market conditions,” Peel wrote. “Hides and tallow have recently been the high drivers of byproducts, with the production of biodiesel being a significant factor.”

Sustainability

An Oct. 25, 2021, article by Carrie Vaselka, published on an Ag Web Proud website, detailed the subject of beef byproduct’s effect on the sustainability of our industry. During a time when this topic (in my opinion, an over-used word) is used to accuse us of inefficiency, the “silent industry” or most unglamorous part of cattle production shines brightly.

After the meat in demand by U.S. consumers is removed from the carcass, the upcycle process of the remaining items begins. Most packing plants house their own rendering facilities, upgrading, processing and marketing the remainder of each carcass.

Although rendering used to be known as “the silent industry,” it may equally be described as one of the original recyclers, “going back hundreds or even thousands of years to when every part of a butchered cow was used in some way and nothing was wasted, compared to today, when in the U.S. only half of a butchered cow is consumed.”

The article goes on to say that Kent Swisher of the North American Renderers Association (NARA), at an NCBA session, explained further. “Sustainability is great, and we’re sustainable. But you can’t just say it, you have to quantify it.”

Around 2012, NARA started conducting life cycle analyses of the rendering industry.

Sustainability, as defined by the UN in 1987, is “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. “ That definition revolves around three pillars: environment, economy and society. Most societies focus on reaching a goal of “net zero.” Defined by the EPA, net zero is consuming only as much energy as is produced, achieving a sustainable balance between water availability and demand, eliminating solid waste sent to landfills. The rendering industry sequesters an amazing five times as many greenhouse gases as it produces.

Having already gone beyond zero, Swisher figures that the only place to go now is to improve on that. He went on to say that societal and cultural changes in the U.S. have had a drastic effect on consumer choices regarding meat. In less developed countries, the level of rendering capability is not necessary. He says “we’re recycling items that in many parts of the world are eaten. Rendering in developed societies depends on the fact that we only eat 50 percent of the animal. In many undeveloped countries, the entire animal disappears.”

Here are more key statistics from Ag Web Proud: Grocery stores generate 1-2 billion pounds of scraps, fat, bone, expired meat and used cooking oil annually. If all renderable products were sent to landfills instead of being processed, all available space would be gone in four years.

Combatting climate change, rendering reduces animal agriculture’s carbon footprint by sequestering five times more greenhouse gases than is produced. It’s the equivalent of removing 18.5 million cars off the road each year.

The U.S. rendering industry accounts for $10 billion in annual economic activity in our country. Almost 20 percent of U.S. rendered products are exported. We are the second largest exporter of biodiesel and renewable diesel which is made of rendered products, about 20 million metric tons of biofuel.

Beef byproducts are a larger and more useful component of our industry than most of us comprehend. Let’s be proud and thankful.