Beef Quality

Dark-cutting beef can mean a significant discount for beef producers.

USDA’s Market News Service from March 12 showed a discount of $33.91 per hundredweight on a carcass basis.

For centuries, farmers have determined a cow’s age by the number and wear of its teeth. Beef processors currently examine the number of permanent incisors present at harvest.

At the “Wagyu Olympics” in northern Japan last fall, Wagyu cattle from across the country competed for supreme standing among Japan’s most coveted cattle breed.

When you look back in the past 10 to 15 years at the data trends, Choice-graded beef has been on the rise.

Every five years or so, most of the major beef processors in the U.S. are audited, sampling 10 percent of a fed or non-fed beef plant’s kill and funded by the Beef Checkoff.

Results of the most recent beef checkoff-funded 2016 National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) for steers and heifers was released during the 2017 Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in July.