Method and system of assessing or analyzing muscle characteristics including strength and tenderness using ultrasound

A method of predicting a level of meat tenderness of a plurality of livestock using an on-the-hoof ultrasound image, comprising:

• receiving, via a communication interface at a central processing location, on-the-hoof ultrasound image of muscle for each of the plurality of livestock from one or more remote devices;
• determining a relative number of muscle bundles and a relative size of the muscle bundles for each of the plurality of livestock using at least one processor at the central processing location that correlates striations in a corresponding ultrasound image for each of the plurality of livestock to the relative number of muscle bundles and the relative size of the muscle bundles from the corresponding ultrasound image for each of the plurality of livestock;
• generating, via the at least one processor at the central processing location, a tenderness rating representing a predicted degree of muscle tissue tenderness for each of the plurality of livestock based on the determined relative number of muscle bundles and the relative size of the muscle bundles in the corresponding ultrasound image, wherein the at least one processor generates a higher tenderness rating for livestock having a larger relative number of the muscle bundles and a smaller relative size of the muscle bundles and a lower tenderness rating is generated for livestock having a smaller relative number of the muscle bundles and a larger size of the muscle bundles, and wherein the at least one processor correlates the predicted degree of the muscle tissue tenderness to an objective shear force value;
• scaling, via the at least one processor, the tenderness rating for each of the plurality of livestock based on at least one of a breed, a sex, an age, or a size of a respective livestock;
• designating, via the at least one processor, the tenderness rating for each of the plurality of livestock;
• using the predicted degree of the muscle tissue tenderness based on a muscle structure in the corresponding ultrasound image for each of the plurality of livestock to predict a final carcass quality of each of the plurality of livestock;
• and
• transmitting, via the communication interface, tenderness rating data to one or more remote terminals, a report that identifies a subset of the plurality of livestock having a more favorable predicted final carcass quality and the tenderness rating data identifying a subset of the plurality of livestock having the higher predicted level of meat tenderness.