Smaller meat processing plants across the country are surviving and profiting by producing, and marketing products differentiated from the standard items carried in the typical retail meat case. Grassfed, regenerative, organic, humanely raised, and other claims-verified products are helping these processors stand apart.
However, smaller processors too often have been unable to offer beef verified with the terms most readily recognizable by shoppers: Choice, Prime, and Select. That changed when USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) launched its Remote Grading Program for Beef last year.
AMS offers beef grading on a user-fee basis at $114/hr. The clock starts ticking from the time the grader leaves their office to travel to the plant and stops when they return. That math doesn’t pencil out for a processor in a rural community handling a small number of carcasses that could be marketed as graded beef.
USDA changed the math equation with the new Remote Grading Program, which trains smaller processors and equips them with the ability to use their smartphones to capture a photo of the appropriate ribeye section and then send that image to a grader via a secure cloud.
The hourly fee is still the same, but is now accessible in increments as short as one-half hour.
This new technology has been a game-changer for many processors, including Utah Beef Producers in Richfield, Utah, 162 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Utah Beef Producers opened their doors about a year ago with a modern, USDA-inspected facility capable of processing up to 100 head/week. Cull cows from area dairies and beef producers have been their primary throughput. They also initiated a finished beef program serving high-end restaurants throughout the region and their direct-to-consumer marketing enterprise. That's where remote grading comes in.
Utah Beef Producers is located at least 4.5 hours from the nearest USDA meat grader according to Kenzey Erickson, marketing manager for the company. That would have meant an expense of more than $1,000 for each trip, excluding the time that the grader was grading carcasses in their plant. With the remote system, Kenzey and her crew can grade between 15-40 carcasses two or three times each month for a fraction of that cost.
Restaurants and consumers purchasing Utah Beef Producers’ products now have the assurance of a USDA grade mark to support the company’s promise of consistently high quality. The remote grading option has also proven attractive to many of the local ranchers who use Utah Beef Producers to process animals for their direct-to-consumer programs.
“Our processing customers can now use graded beef as a part of their marketing programs,” Kenzey notes.
She adds that utilizing USDA beef grading also provides a valuable tool for improving the quality of finished animals entering the plant.
“Ranchers can use the grading information to improve their finishing program by looking at the types of genetics and finishing rations that produce a higher percentage of Choice beef. Remote grading is perfect for us, as well as for mom-and-pop shops that want to up their game in terms of offering Choice or Prime beef,” she says.
After using remote grading for the past year, Kenzey has become a champion for the service and has made several presentations to producers on implementing the program in their plants.
“I want to pass along our experience to mom-and-pop plants that can benefit from this service, she notes.
Kenzey will share her experience with remote beef grading during a one-hour online roundtable hosted by Flower Hill Institute Regional Directors Dave Carter and Chris Roper at 1 p.m. MT on Tuesday, February 25th. Anyone wanting to attend that roundtable discussion can register here.