Is this what a grand champion should look like

I just picked up the meat from the steer I helped the kid out with this year, I think the steak looks pretty good.
Butcher said it was the best fair calf he has seen in 5 years. Of coarse the wife says that is because it has been 5 years since he butchered one of our boys, but that's how moms are.
Not the best picture, frozen, but you can see the marbling pretty clearly

What did the steer weigh and what did the carcass weigh? 
Either the steak was trimmed very close, or it lacked fat cover?
Marbling is pretty good though, but depends on what you compare it to.

The real question is how does it taste??  <beer>

Looks delicious, I can't tell if some of the flecks I see are glare from the lighting, but I would call that prime!  What was the breeding of that steer?  We had a show steer that went to the University after the fair one year.  He went prime and yielded 2.9 which made us pretty proud. 

I'd eat that.  I assume from the marbling he was not zilmaxed or implanted?

He weighed 1301(empty) at fair, hung at 884, yes they trim some of the external fat. He was a Carnac out of Sim/Angus cow, the only supliment he had was stabilized rice bran, no implants or zilmax.

Please explain this comment...

Nice looking steak, feeder did a heck of a job.

GoWyo said:

I'd eat that.  I assume from the marbling he was not zilmaxed or implanted?

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rackranch said:

Please explain this comment...

Nice looking steak, feeder did a heck of a job.

GoWyo said:

I'd eat that.  I assume from the marbling he was not zilmaxed or implanted?

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Explanation of comment --

http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2097/2415/cattle08pg95-96.pdf?sequence=1

Thats awesome! Goes to show a truly good show steer can hang a good carcass also! <beer>

That steer dressed at 68%!!!!  Phenominal

Actually, he said they shrunk the steer to 1301, so assuming they took off 100 pounds, which is VERY easy to do withholding feed and water, the steer would have weighed 1400 and therefore dressing percentage would be a respectable 63%. If the steer shrunk by 150 pounds, the percentage would be 60.9%.

He weighed 1384 2 days prior to weigh in full, so yes, he was shrunk down and he more than likely weighed 1400 when he was killed.

If the carcase was hung for > 21 days that steak will be like butter!

Very interesting article and congratulations on great job .....

I like to put this into a money perspective. Dressed cattle were selling for a weighted average of $193/cwt today on the USDA report. http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/am_ls830.txt

If you simply sold it on the rail and hit no premiums or discounts, then you would have grossed $1,706.12. My opinion, that is at least choice average, and with that size of a RE, it might be leaning into a YG 2. I don't know the BF measurement. I doubt seriously if it would fall in YG 4 with that much muscle in the calf. That is a calf that would have made some money with our pen at tri county, and that is saying something in the last couple of years. Nice carcass. It has that "starry night" look to it in the marbling.

The boy did a good job, he is diligent when it comes to feeding, there are times I may get 3 or 4 text or phone calls a week with a feed, hair, or health questions. He had a calf that had the structure, appetite, and never went off feed.