Cattle cloning at West Texas A&M could produce better steak

Elvis is a calf cloned by ViaGen Inc. of Austin, Texas, and groomed for breeding. Elvis is a calf cloned by ViaGen Inc. of Austin, Texas, and groomed for breeding. Photo: GUZY Photo: GUZY Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Cattle cloning at West Texas A&M could produce better steak 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

The best cut of meat you eat in the near future may come from the offspring of cloned cattle.

Researchers at West Texas A&M in the Texas Panhandle say the offspring of cloned cattle they've produced yield prime grade meat. Should researchers be successful at producing more high-grade offspring from cloned cattle, grocery stores could eventually be filled with more top quality steaks.

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"This project will produce higher-quality beef, more of it, more efficiently," Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp told the Amarillo Globe News.

The Amarillo Globe News reports a bull and three heifers were cloned from prime-graded carcasses in 2012 by scientists at West Texas A&M, in the town of Canyon. The cloned cattle had 13 calves, which were all raised on pastures with other commercial cattle, the newspaper reports.

Researchers told the Amarillo publication that the offspring of the clones had 16 percent less trim fat, 9 percent more rib eye and 45 percent more marbling than average cattle.

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According to agweb.com, bulls and heifers can only be considered Prime, Yield Grade 1 meat if they have not been injured or have never been sick. Prime, Yield Grade 1 is the rating of the carcass used to create the cloned cattle, agweb.com reports.

The website reports that it could be years before the meat from offspring of cloned cattle becomes widely available to the public. Current results, however, are pointing toward a promising future, according to Dean Hawkins, who holds the post of dean of agriculture and natural sciences at West Texas A&M.

"If the product does nothing more than shift a greater percentage of cattle towards the choice quality grade, it's successful," Hawkins told agweb.com.