Words from AngusPRO Magazine 2025.
Mat Bailey from Bailey Scanning has been on a quest to bring better technology to the scanning world. In 2024 he travelled to America where he was certified under the Ultrasounds Guidelines Council (UGC) at Texas A&M University, as well as completing a Centralised Ultrasound Processing (CUP) Lab training programme at Iowa State University. He returned to New Zealand with the latest technology – an ExaGo Ultrasound machine from IMV imaging.
“The ExaGo machine combined with the CUP analysis programme will bring huge benefit to both stud and commercial breeders in NZ,” says Mat, who is now Breedplan accredited.
The objective of CUP is to provide the seedstock industry with timely, accurate and unbiased measurements for fat thickness, ribeye area and % IMF (marbling).
How does CUP Ultrasound work?
As a CUP Ultrasound technician, Mat is required to scan and submit 1 rump image, 2-3 Eye muscle images and 5 IMF images per animal. These images, along with a corresponding weigh session collected by the farmer, are sent to the CUP Lab in Iowa. The images are put through quality control before data assessment, and the CUP Lab uses the best images for data collection. All 5 IMF images are assessed through their software to return the highest data accuracy. They assess the images and return the data within 2-7 days. All stud data is unbiased and unsubjective through this system.
What are the benefits?
When comparing the CUP lab IMF model data from the ExaGo to that of traditional scanning technology (used elsewhere throughout NZ), there is a significant improvement in both correlation and standard deviation. The Cup Lab have summarised the model for the ExaGo is 10-12% more correlated to carcase IMF than data from the Aloka, Classic and Aquila machines. The ExaGo machine has an IMF measuring range of 0-16% compared to the older models (1-8%).
Perhaps more importantly, the CUP Lab has seen a 50-70% larger standard deviation with the ExaGo machinethey more closely match the standard deviation of carcase IMF, therefore more closely matching the actual distribution curve of carcase data. This allows the identification of outlier animals on both ends of the spectrum, better than ever before.
“We’ve seen a huge improvement in overall accuracy and a better spread of data with the Exago and a substantial gain in accuracy compared to current shuteside analysis techniques.”
Stud breeders benefiting
Will Wilding at Te Mania is always trying to stay ahead of the curve with technology and improvements to increase accuracy and predictability in their cattle, so was quick to adopt Bailey Scanning’s ExaGo machine for their CUP scanning in 2024.
“CUP is a proven gold standard in carcase data analysis, and we’ve seen more outliers across a wider bell curve in our results,” says Will.
The improved accuracy made it simple to easily identify animals at both ends of the spectrum, to select the best animals for the Te Mania breeding programme.
“The performance of this new tech gives a raw scan result that’s 95-98% accurate, up from around 65% on the older machines, and also greater accuracy in IMF and a greater distribution to find those significant outliers.”
Will notes that the increase in the number of outliers requires a bit of extra work in responding to the outlier reports coming in from Angus Australia, but they’re essential to ensuring the data goes into the system and subsequently affects their animal’s EBVs.
Mat has seen data come back that has animals measuring over 11% IMF, whereas previously, the best they ever recorded was 8% with the older machines. He has also seen 18 month cattle with EMA over 125cm squared, which is quite remarkable. Those top animals need to be recorded accurately, so this is a game changer in the scanning world.