FH"I'm still trying to figure this out (it must be my age!). This bull weighed 1193, so he should have 11.9 ribeye, correct?"
I would like a 1200lb bull to have a 14.4in Ribeye (1.2 per 100lbs).
FH"None of the other bulls we bought have been ultrasounded, so they might have a 10 ribeye, or 14. We just don't know. Now, about he marbling, should I find out the marbling score? The ratio of 117 only means he marbled 17% higher than the rest of this particular herd, right?"
The marbling score would be nice to know, but also the backfat. I have seen bulls with high marbling scores, but they have .4in backfat so they are as fat as our steers going to kill. They 117 ratio means he was 17% higher than the average of his contempary group, some herds may have 3-5 contempary groups.
FH"Does a small ribeye mean more fat over the back? Ribeye, is the size of the T-bones, right? Does that correlate to anything else?"
The ribeye correlates to only two things. The size of the ribeye, which makes up only 9% of the carcass. It also correlates to the redmeat yield.
BRG, A 16 once ribeye is very big, but just because the ribeye is big doesn't mean the other cuts will be any bigger, because most other cuts are cut down to size anyway.