AMES, Iowa – The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is currently seeking input from the public and stakeholders on how the U.S. Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef may be updated to better serve the needs of industry, large-volume food buyers, and modern consumers.

The USDA said this request for comments stems from an American Wagyu (cattle) Association petition, which requested that AMS consider adding marbling degrees to the USDA Prime grade for beef to better characterize modern genetics, which are not always differentiated within the current marbling degrees.

“There would definitely be some benefit in updating standards of carcass grading overall,” Grant Dewell, DVM, associate professor of veterinary medicine and beef extension veterinarian at Iowa State University in Ames, told Farm World. “I have not followed the Wagyu Association’s issue closely enough, but with the shift in the percent prime carcasses in the last 10 years, there could be some value increase the number of marbling scores.

“This trend shows how competitive the prime category is becoming, and that our traditional cattle genetics are marbling at a high degree that the Wagyu association feels there would be some benefit to more categories,” he added. “Our current cattle genetics and feeding programs have rapidly increased the number of high-quality cattle for the market.”

The USDA said beef producers, packers, wholesalers, food manufacturers, foodservice operators, food retailers and consumers rely on the agency’s voluntary beef grading services to ensure that requirements are met for quality and other factors.

The agency added that USDA grading offers an independent third-party opinion on product quality based on the USDA requirements to help producers market their products, and assures buyers that the quality meets or exceeds those standards.

“I think it is appropriate to update the U.S. Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef,” Andrew P. Griffith, University of Tennessee professor of agricultural and resource economics, told Farm World. “The industry would benefit from differentiation in Prime Grade beef just like Choice is differentiated.

“The expectation is that there would be some price differences, but it may not be as big of a difference as some may expect,” added Griffith, who has run his own cattle operation since 2017, currently with 550 to 600 head, which includes a mix of mature cows, heifer development and stocker cattle. “However, it would allow buyers to select the product their customers demand.”

Published in the Federal Register on July 8, this initiative seeks stakeholder input on modernizing these foundational standards, which guide the classification of beef quality and yield, the USDA said.

The call for comments, open until Sept. 8, focuses on two primary areas: refining marbling degrees within the USDA Prime grade, and reassessing the skeletal maturity requirements for younger cattle.

AMS is also soliciting public comment on whether to eliminate this skeletal maturity requirement for carcasses determined by dentition to be under 30 months of age, with AMS adding, “Scientific research and data on beef tenderness suggest that the skeletal maturity requirement could be eliminated.”

According to the USDA, dentition is an examination of an animal’s teeth to determine its physiological age at slaughter. Because older cattle produce tougher meat, dentition is used to separate carcasses into age categories, which directly dictates the meat’s quality grade and palatability.

Griffith said the removal of the skeletal maturity requirement is one of indifference: “There is a cost to determining the skeletal maturity, which makes things more expensive. This requirement was mainly instituted for the export market. The domestic market is not as concerned. Most consumers just want a good product.”

The USDA said it develops and maintains official grade standards for beef carcasses, which measure factors such as meat yield, fat covering, ribeye area, degrees of marbling and carcass defects such as dark cutting beef and blood splash. The standards are applied to determine the quality of the product, and are not a reflection of wholesomeness, which is determined by the agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service prior to the grading process, the agency said.

David Trowbridge, of Gregory Feedlots in Tabor, Iowa, told Farm World, “Over the past several years, we’ve done a good job educating consumers about beef quality grades, and what they represent.”

As a result, he said, demand for Prime beef has increased because consumers better understand the value and eating experience associated with higher-quality beef: “If quality grading standards are updated in the future, we must maintain, or even strengthen, the integrity of those standards.”

He said he believes there’s an opportunity to modernize yield grading: “Rather than relying primarily on fat measurements, we should move toward evaluating actual red meat yield. Advances in technologies like 3D imaging are bringing us closer to that reality. These tools could allow cattle to be measured in the feedlot before harvest, but widespread adoption will require collaboration throughout the supply chain, including packers.”

He added, “Today, we are feeding cattle to heavier weights, which can result in excess fat. The industry’s goal should be to produce more lean beef and less excess fat. Achieving that will require both genetic progress and more accurate methods of measuring red meat yield.”

AMS will evaluate comments received by Sept. 8 and consider any next steps supported by stakeholders, including proposing revisions to the standards. If revisions are made, AMS will publish a draft of the updated United States Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef in the Federal Register for an additional comment period, the agency said.