Yield grade 4 and CAB?
Producers often turn to the guys in our office to help them make heads or tails of carcass data. It is our kind of thing…
A call came in last week that sounded an awful lot like one our team has heard before:
“There must be some mistake…I got a yield grade 4 discount and a CAB premium.”
This myth is completely understandable, especially once you learn its history:
Myth: Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) doesn’t accept yield grade 4s (YG4) into its program.
Fact: If you’d asked us that question in early 2006, we’d have said, “You’re right. There must be some mistake!”
But then this happened:
“Responding to beef industry changes and consumer demand, the Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) Board of Directors on Sept 7 <2006> voted to adjust Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand specifications. In place of a long-standing Yield Grade (YG) 3.9 limit, the brand will use a more specific consistency requirement in the future. Finished cattle weights have increased steadily and beef fabrication styles have evolved in the 28 years since CAB was founded. The changes will address uniformity issues that technology has been unable to control.”
Essentially that took the YG spec and broke it into its three separate parts—ribeye size, backfat and carcass weight:
- 10-16 square inch ribeye
- Carcass weight less than 1,000 lb
- Less than 1 inch external backfat
This has helped us deliver more consistency to our customers. If you want to get into all the details behind the move, check out: “CAB to enhance uniformity.”
But in short, you can get a YG 4 discount (because packers like to discourage waste fat) and a CAB premium (because they like to reward quality).
May your bottom line be filled with black ink,
Miranda
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