How Is Quality Grad Standards for Beef Used in the Processing for Wholesales
Buying local beef can be a challenge for local businesses and consumers alike. Because farmers are familiar with their product, they may not realize how much information new customers demand to make a purchasing decision. This publication aims to assist get-go-fourth dimension buyers (and sellers) communicate better to increment local beef sales.
Ownership Local Beefiness
Buying local beefiness is a cracking way to support local producers. For those that are new to the local purchasing experience, there are six factors you should consider: (1) finding reputable producers, (2) familiarizing yourself with animal traits, (3) agreement inspection, labeling, and grading, (4) choosing processing options, (5) calculating price per pound, and (6) making storage arrangements.
Finding Reputable Producers
It goes without maxim that you should have an chemical element of trust in the producer before buying from them. You may learn a lot from a website and social media or post a question on Facebook to detect out where friends and coworkers purchase local beef. A farmers market is a great venue, too, equally you volition go to see and talk to the producer. Online product reviews can also be helpful if the producer has a web presence.
Some websites list local producers in Due south Carolina, including
- Certified S Carolina Grown, www.certifiedsc.com
- Southward Carolina Section of Agronomics
- WLTX-Television News xix list of local meat producers (May 2020)
In add-on to reviewing bachelor data about a producer, information technology is a good idea to ask a producer most their operations and products. Some questions you may desire to consider asking are listed beneath.
- How long have they been in business supplying beef?
- What do their animals' diets contain of throughout the year?
- Do they purchase calves and or rear their own? If purchased, where practise they come from, and how are they managed?
- Are their animals given wellness products, and if and so, what?
- Do they provide product samples?
- Who else exercise they sell beef to regularly?
- How do their contracts work?
- How does their pricing alter?
- Practice they evangelize?
- Is beefiness bought processed or equally an animal? If processed, which processor(s) do they use?
- Has the beef received any recognition?
- How much beefiness can they supply at any given time?
- What is the minimum gild size?
Information technology is important to note that information technology is not uncommon for producers to request a deposit well in advance of product delivery. Brand sure you conspicuously communicate expectations regarding cost, timeline, and commitment.
Familiarize Yourself with Animal Traits
How the Animate being Was Raised
Beefiness animals spend virtually of their lives eating forage, either pastured forage (grass) or stored fodder (typically dry out hay). Steers and heifers destined for slaughter are "finished," meaning they spend a catamenia of fourth dimension in a feedlot eating grain to increment marbling (intramuscular fat, effigy one) and change their fat color from xanthous to white. Yellowish fat is a result of eating grass fodder. Finishing animals on high energy grass takes approximately one hundred days. If yous are ownership an animal that is "pasture-finished" or "grass-finished," it ways that the animal spends a portion of its fourth dimension on higher quality forage to reach fattening, only the fat volition retain a yellow color. You should also expect less marbling from grass-finished beefiness, which may consequence in a less tender and juicy cut of meat.
Figure one: Marbling (intramuscular fat) differences in beef ribeye steaks. Epitome credit: U.s.a. Section of Agriculture (USDA).
The Sex and Age of the Animal
There are a number of different sexual activity classifications for beef animals (table one). Typically, the best beef products come up from younger heifers and steers, which are unremarkably sold for retail cuts and restaurant menus.
Table 2 shows how the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) uses a maturity classification to assign ages to beef animals. While older animals (maturity C through Eastward) will yield the same retail cuts every bit a younger animal, the meat may exist tougher and not gustation equally good. Aged cows and bulls are usually processed into ground meat or in a fashion that increases tenderness and gustatory modality (eastward.m., lunchmeat, sausage, jerky).
Tabular array 1. Sex classification nautical chart for beefiness animals.
| Young Creature (either sexual activity) | Dogie |
| Young Female | Heifer Dogie |
| Immature Male | Bull Calf |
| Young Castrated Male person | Steer Calf |
| Young Female | Heifer |
| Immature Male | Bull |
| Young Desexualize | Steer |
| Mature Female | Cow |
| Mature Male | Bull |
| Mature Castrate (Castrated after maturity) | Stag |
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.2
Table ii. Beef maturity classifications.3
| A | nine–30 Months |
| B | 30–42 Months |
| C | 42–60 Months |
| D | 60–96 Months |
| East | Greater than 96 Months |
Sympathise Inspection, Labeling, and Grading
Meat Inspection and Labeling
It is important to understand that there is a difference between buying retail cuts of meat and buying an animal. If you lot are buying an animal (with terms like whole, one-half, or quarter), you or the producer must arrange to have it candy at a local facility. While the product is still expected to exist condom and wholesome, many local facilities are not routinely inspected. In this case, the meat products will be labeled "Not for Sale."
If you are buying labeled retail cuts of meat, the brute must accept been candy at a federal or state inspected facility. Federal and state inspectors are tasked with an antemortem (before harvest) inspection of the animal, humane harvesting, and inspection of specific organs. The inspection systems ensure a safe and salubrious meat supply. The labels on these meat products will accept a stamp certifying the meat was inspected and identifying which facility processed information technology.
Meat Grading
Meat grading is a voluntary USDA (federal inspection) provided service. Beefiness can exist graded into 8 different categories (from highest to lowest): Prime, Selection, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner.ane Grading is based on both brute age and the amount of marbling in the meat. In general, the more marbling (figure 1), the better the season and moisture of the additional fat within the muscle. Sure beef products are marketed by quality grade. For instance, to be classified equally Certified Angus Beef, an animal must class either choice or prime. Currently, no S Carolina processing facilities provide grading services. The www.beefresearch.org website has more data on beefiness grading.
Choosing Processing Options
Stride i: Slaughter
Slaughter involves the humane killing and dressing of the brute. Traditional slaughter involves restraining and stunning the animal, while Kosher and Halal slaughter may not.4 Dressing refers to the removal of the internal organs, skin, hooves, and head. Often, a dressing percentage is identified, pregnant how much of the live animal becomes the carcass, and this value is typically 62%–64%. The animal is and then divide in one-half and done, and a production such as lactic acid or steam is applied to enhance food safety. At this signal, the brute is referred to as a carcass, and the processor records the "hanging weight."
Stride ii: Aging
The carcass is then anile in a cooler with a target temperature of 34°F. The crumbling process tenderizes the meat by assuasive protein degradation. The corporeality of crumbling time depends on the processor and the desires of the customer. Aging is an expensive process, as cooler space is often limited. The American Meat Science Association provides more data most crumbling beefiness on their website.
Step iii: Cut
Afterwards crumbling, the carcass is broken downwards into retail cuts. Information technology is important to retrieve that certain cuts are tradeoffs with other cuts. As an example, you lot tin can either request strip steaks and tenderloin or t-bones and porterhouse steaks, but non both. Oftentimes the choice is betwixt steaks, roasts, and ground beef. Ground beef is usually produced from lean trimmings with fat added back to get a consistent percent lean/percent fat. Most ground beef constitute in retail stores is 80% lean and 20% fatty. The Clemson Extension Agribusiness Program Squad website provides more information nearly retail beefiness cuts.
Step four: Packaging and Further Processing
The product is then either wrapped in freezer paper or vacuum packaged. Not all processors have vacuum packaging as the equipment is expensive. Vacuum packaging also increases the cost of processing. Farther candy products such as cubing, sausage, jerky, and snack sticks are options if the processor has the equipment to produce these products. It is worth your time to fully explore what you volition be receiving and what capabilities and limitations may exist with the processor.
Computing Price per Pound
Price per pound is a combination of how much everything costs (raising the animal, processing, packaging, trucking, delivery, and any value-added products) and the total yield (weight of packaged meat products).
Local Beef Costs
You should accept realistic expectations about how much beef you are buying and how much it will toll. Local beef is comparably priced to the product you see in a supermarket. You lot should be receiving a premium product and developing a human relationship with your food source. Animals raised in alternative ways (e.g., grass-fed, organic) can take significantly college production costs. Too, small packing plants have more overhead and expenses (on a per animal basis) than large, high-volume plants; therefore, processing costs will be higher.
Full Yield
For those buying whole, half, or quarter animals, it can exist a surprise that a i,300-pound live beef animal yields nether 550 pounds of packaged meat. There are terms and typical beef yields that may help you empathise what you are getting for your coin (tabular array three).
- Live weight: what the animal weighed before being sent to the processor
- Dressed or carcass weight: weight after slaughter and earlier cutting
- Packaged weight: pounds of packaged meat (including bone-in cuts) after cutting
- Boneless meat: how much boneless meat (if requested)
Tabular array 3. Typical processing losses and what to look in terms of pounds of meat per animal.4
| Creature Species | Live Weight | Dressing % | Carcass Weight | Cut Out % | Packaged Meat | Bone Out % | Boneless Meat |
| Beef | 1312 | 62% | 813 | 68% | 553 | 85% | 470 |
*Annotation: Depending on preferences for bone-in cuts versus boneless, the amount of organ meats desired, the butcher's skill, and the amount of fatty preferred can cause these yields to vary.
Making Storage Arrangements
Buying a whole or a half carcass will generate a lot of product and require a large corporeality of freezer space. A good general rule is that a quarter beef animal volition accept four to v cubic anxiety of freezer space. Make sure you take the freezer space to store the beefiness earlier accepting delivery. Also, monitor your freezer regularly, every bit a power outage or freezer failure is a very plush event. Generators and freezer temperature alarm systems are price-effective safety measures for those looking to store a large amount of beef.
Parting Thoughts
If you are buying a whole or partial animal, realize y'all may have to be artistic with some of the less desirable cuts. Beef shanks, oxtails, briskets, tongues, and hearts are some of the items y'all may receive from the processor. The Clemson Agribusiness Program Team website provides information on cooking methods for these products.
Local beef demand is increasing. Every bit a effect, local processors are reporting full schedules for vi to eight months out, and those with advanced processing capabilities are booked even further out. Practise your research and exist patient, equally it may have some time to locate an appropriate producer, secure a processing time, and stop up with the production in mitt.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Kevin Gould of Michigan Country Cooperative Extension for his assistance in reviewing this publication.
References Cited
- USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Beef grades and standards. Washington (DC): US Department of Agronomics, Agricultural Marketing Service; [accessed 2020 Aug thirteen]. https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/beefiness/shields-and-marbling-pictures.
- Britannica. Cattle. Chicago (IL): Encyclopedia Britannica; [accessed 2020 Aug xiii] 2021. https://www.britannica.com/beast/Santa-Gertrudis
- Tatum D. Beef grading. Centennial (CO): National Cattlemen'southward Beef Clan; 2021. Beef FACTS: product enhancement. https://www.beefresearch.org/resources/production-quality/fact-sheets/beef-grading.
- Texas A&Yard AgriLife Extension. Kosher and halal. Higher Station (TX): Texas A&M University, Meat Scientific discipline Department; [accessed 2020 Aug 13]. https://meat.tamu.edu/ansc-307-honors/kosher-halal/.
- Raines CR. The butcher kept your meat? Country College (PA): The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Dairy and Brute Scientific discipline; [accessed 2020 Aug thirteen]. https://animalscience.psu.edu/outreach/programs/meat/pdf/the-butcher-stole-my-meat.pdf.
Boosted Resources
Fischer M, Richards Due south, Bolt B. Direct marketing of beef, pork, or lamb: is this an opportunity for you? Clemson (SC): Clemson Cooperative Extension, Land-Grant Press by Clemson Extension; 2020. LGP 1058.
Clemson Extension Agribusiness Program Squad
Michigan State Academy Extension, Meat Marketing, and Processing
Source: https://lgpress.clemson.edu/publication/a-guide-to-buying-local-beef/
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