(country music) - [Jordan] Nebraska, for as long as it's been here, has been a beef state.

(country music) -[Narrator] Here in the middle of the country lies Nebraska.

The beef state, the unofficial nickname that first appeared on license plates in 1956.

In Nebraska, agriculture is the state's top economic driver, and beef cattle production is the largest sector within that.

Nebraskans produce about 25 million head of corn-fed beef cattle a year.

That means there are more than three times as many beef cattle as people roaming around.

(country music) - We've brought in leading experts and leading companies who understand the conversion of muscle to meat, who can really hone in on, "How do I amplify this cut?"

- [Narrator] The University of Nebraska is known for its cutting edge research in many areas.

(machine whirling) The results of those endeavors have found their way into our everyday lives.

(gentle music) In the grocery aisle, a promising cut of flat iron steak has its origins in seeing potential product left on the cutting room floor.

(gentle music) Researcher Chris Calkins spent 40 years at the university studying fresh meat and analyzing its quality, flavor, taste, and color.

- There was a period of time in the late nineties where the value of beef cattle, the value of the meat was declining and that was cause for alarm.

So I was part of a group who did a project called Muscle Profiling.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Beef Checkoff, the multi-university research team, worked with the National Cattleman's Beef Association to identify new cuts of meat.

- The goal was to create an encyclopedia of knowledge about all of the muscles in the shoulder and in the back leg of the animal.

So the Muscle Profiling project was designed to identify those diamonds in the rough, the chance to add value and increase eating satisfaction for our customers.

(gentle music) The ultimate outgrowth was to identify approximately 15 different cuts of meat.

(gentle music) Chief among those was the flat iron steak.

We sell approximately a hundred million pounds of those now in the US.

Before the project, none of them were sold as steaks.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Jordan Wicks is an assistant professor and meat extension specialist at UNL.

She wasn't part of the study, but she understands the university's role that affect the meat industry.

Part of developing the flat iron was to figure out how to cut around a seam of connective tissue that wasn't so tender.

- The front arm and the back leg, those are usually what we consider a tougher product.

But there's an anomaly when we talk about the flat iron.

The flat iron is actually the second most tender cut and it sits back here on your shoulder.

It'll be tender, it's something that you can put on a steak salad 'cause it will bite with, like, the lettuce.

It's a little bit more cost effective than buying a filet.

- [Chris] We used to think that muscles in the round and the chuck were the ones that allowed the animals to move, and so they did a great deal of work while the animal was walking.

But some of those muscles in the chuck just do this, (upbeat music) and they don't work that hard.

Therefore, they're very tender.

(upbeat music) - [Jordan] There is a caveat to that.

We wanna make sure we don't overcook that one.

That's a very important to cook that to a medium well.

Otherwise, it does start to get a little bit of a livery flavor.

(sizzling) -[Chris] When it comes to the flat iron name, that's actually an old name that's been around for a hundred years in the industry, but it fell out of use.

It has a connotation of an old West steak that is flavorful and tender.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The flat iron was officially recognized and hit the market in 2002.

In the two decades since, meat researchers continued to conduct research that positively impacts not only the beef industry, but the consumer as well.

(upbeat music) - [Jordan] Every industry has to make money.

I genuinely think a lot of people in the meat industry are here to serve our global population.

We wanna feed the world.

That is really what we want to do.

(upbeat music)