MOULTRIE — With the Atkins diet craze, Americans have steered their diets back to protein. But with a lot of protein comes fat.

Discerning consumers are seeking red meat with white meat qualities, and they are finding it in Belgian blue beef, breeders said.

From the small farms of Belgium came livestock that packed a lot of meat on four hooves. Decades of selective breeding have produced small boned, large-bodied animals with double muscling. They look like brutes but actually they’re quite docile.

“Like a big puppy,” said Ken Wagoner of Ft. White, Fla., who has been breeding Belgian blues since 1975.

Like the more renowned beefalo and emu, breeders and producers have to cater to a niche market of the health-conscious. But it’s a market that’s increasing, Harold Brubaker of Asheboro, N.C., said at the Sunbelt Agricultural Expo this week.

Since the USDA determined that Belgian blues are one of the best terminal crossing bulls, more and more ranchers are buying Belgian blue bulls to sire mixed breeds.

Though a specialty breed, sale prices are comparable to traditional breeds. Brubaker sold an 11-month-old at the Expo for $1,800.

“That’s the oldest bull we have for sale. I’ve had people stop in who want a bull, and I say they had to wait until they finished calfing in December,” he said.

The breed is one of the most efficient beef animals with a great conversion of feed to meat, Brubaker said. They grow rapidly and within 12 to 14 months weigh more than 1,100 pounds. Conventional cattle need 18 months or so to become that heavy, he said.

The attraction is the bulk of lean meat a carcass produces. The average American cow will dress out to 50 to 55 percent beef. A Belgian blue mix will dress out to 65 percent, and full-bloods will dress out to 80 percent, the breeder said.

A USDA study said a half-breed has less fat and cholesterol than skinless poultry and seafood, Brubaker said, yet still has higher protein content. Conventional American beef is from animals that have been pumped with growth hormones and contain large amounts of fat, he said.

For comparison, the USDA reports that a serving of beef from a Belgian blue and Hereford mix has 96 calories compared to 188 calories from traditional beef, 130 from skinless chicken breast and 119 from beefalo. The blue has very little fat, compared to traditional beef’s 25 to 35 percent. Cholesterol is less than one-third that that of traditional beef.

“If you go to a steakhouse and order a steak, you might as well get a can of Crisco and a spoon,” Wagoner said, who sells beef by the side (about 624 pounds) for about $3.50 per pound.

“If you go to the grocery store, you’re going to spend more than that for good hamburger,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of repeat buyers, but some of them I lost because I couldn’t keep up with demand.”

In addition to high quality beef, the animals’ soft and supple hides are used for making leather upholstery (Mercedes uses them, Wagoner said), clothing and other products.