We had a great question from a newsletter subscriber, Paulette:
"I see different grading on commercial advertisements, AA, AAA, Angus beef, etc. How does this reflect on your beef? Please explain. Warmest Regards."
This is a fantastic question because grocery store beef is marketed and priced according to these standards. It's important to understand what it is (and isn't), so you can make an educated and informed decision about your food.
WARNING: This is another "comprehensive" answer - so buckle up!
So, CANADIAN BEEF: GRADING (A/AA/AAA/Prime)...
Where do we fit in?
Without being dismissive, the quick and simple answer is:
We don't - and we're okay with that.
FIRST, I want to point out that GRADING and INSPECTION are different.
Inspection ensures a healthy animal and appropriate hygiene and standards are met during butchering and processing - and this is ALWAYS done at our local butcher, and is mandatory across Ontario and Canada.
Grading is the 'industry accepted' standard of characteristics and qualities that help regulate a consistent market value for the product, and is a voluntary process regulated at the federal level.
WHY GRADING STARTED...
Just reflect on how people used to get their beef (hint: it probably looks a lot like what we're doing here at Keyser Creek Farms...)
You may find it hard to imagine a world without grocery stores, but they're only about 100 years old. Everything used to be more local and direct - whether you bought from the butcher shop or directly from the farmer (who worked with the local abattoir) - everyone knew where everything came from.
The butcher's personal reputation was on the line: he would be able to assess the animal and carcass and haggle a price with the farmer - then price the meat at the store front appropriately. He was the processor and the grader - and his business depended on him being honest and delivering quality products for fair prices. If it was the farmer selling - the buck stops there. (NOTE: when people's personal livelihoods are on the line - you'll always get better quality and customer service!)
As populations grew, more beef was raised, and people saw that separating the processing from the selling could help with efficiencies! Voila - processing plants and grocery stores (we all know it's obviously more complicated than that, right? Good). The plants that made the most money were ones that could expand and create efficiencies of scale - selling more beef to more butcher shops and grocery stores.
Which means that beef from various different farms (with different breeds of cattle and ways of feeding and raising them) was going in lots of different directions... How could consumers be confident that they were getting a fair price? Are you actually getting a better product when you're paying higher prices? And how could farmers be sure they were being offered a fair price for their product as well; do they get better prices for a better product??
As farmers and customers became further disconnected from each other, it was reasonable to try and find some way to create consistency and reliability.
THAT'S WHAT THE STANDARDIZED GRADING SYSTEM IS FOR:
- customers get consistent and predictable quality according to grade
- common standards to determine a consistent price for consumers
- basis for producer settlement (what farmers get paid)
WHAT IS THE GRADING BASED ON?
The Canadian Beef Grading Agency assesses:
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maturity (age) of the animal
- ('Youthful' =/< 30months; 'Mature' =/> 30months)
-
sex
- 'pronounced masculinity': higher levels of testosterone decreases meat quality, which is why beef is typically from steers, not bulls
-
muscling (meat yield)
- the % of hanging weight that can be harvested for retail cuts - everything +52.3% is Grade 1, down to Grade 5 <45.4%
-
fat (colour, texture, cover)
- white or amber vs yellow; firmness; as well as thickness
-
meat (colour, texture, marbling)
- firmness; bright red vs dark red; extent of marbling (a % of intramuscular fat)
Here's a quick diagram that outlines the categorization for grading:
Image taken from the Beef Cattle Research Council website: https://www.
WHICH PROCESSING PLANTS GRADE BEEF?
It's important to realize that this grading system is designed for federally inspected processing plants (I believe there are only 22 across all of Canada). If you want to ship beef across provincial borders, or internationally, it must be done at one of these locations.
It's a little crazy to think that ~70% of the beef in grocery stores across ALL of Canada comes through only 2 processing plants (Cargill - High River, and JBS - Brooks), and if you add in the Cargill facility here in Guelph, ON, you hit 85%.
"Canada has hundreds of provincially inspected processors, but they only process around four per cent of the Canadian herd, or 4,000 cattle per week, which is slightly less than what Cargill’s plant in High River can do in a day. Federally inspected facilities, which are the only ones able to ship between provinces and export internationally, typically process about 65,000 cattle a week."
This excerpt is from a great introductory article to understand where the system is at, at how it has gotten to this point... and yes, it has A LOT to do with efficiencies of scale, as well as government regulations.
Why Only Three Meat Packing Plants Process the Vast Majority of Canada's Beef - Financial Post
It means these plants are huge, running constantly, and processing massive numbers of animals a day - which means having someone employed full time to grade the beef makes sense. What does NOT make sense is for someone to run around to all the little abattoirs to grade a few animals a day at multiple locations.
When we asked our butcher about it, his answer was short and sweet:
"It's a government regulated process. Not many provincial abattoirs have that ability or volume to be considered for the grading process." - Adam
So, unless a provincial abattoir voluntarily OPTS IN to become a federally inspected plant (which is a lot of paperwork and $$), all beef butchered provincially is OUTSIDE of this grading system.
SO WHERE DOES THAT PUT OUR BEEF?
Since about 96% of the beef in Canada is grain-fed through these federal plants, the grading system is designed to categorize and compare that type of meat. Since our animals are grass-fed and finished, the characteristics of our meat are different too!
DID YOU KNOW?
Due to high levels of carotenoids (ex. Vitamin A) from eating lots of grass and forages, the colour of the fat from grass-fed cattle is more yellow.
That could bump us into the B1 or B2 grade.
DID YOU KNOW?
For the same reason, the meat colour is naturally deeper red.
That might bump us out at B4.
DID YOU KNOW?
Grass-fed beef is naturally leaner - that's actually A GOOD THING! Remember: grain-fed & finished diets are obesity diets for cattle meant to fatten them before butchering.
Maybe that puts us at lower end Grade A according to their standards...?
DID YOU KNOW?
Our steers dress out (the muscling or meat yield category) between 60-65%! Which is way above the top grade for yield! "They" say that organic, and grass-fed & finished, typically yields lower than grain-fed, but that doesn't seem to be true around here. (Maybe just going back to an original, healthy diet helps them grow healthy and strong!?)
PONDER WITH ME FOR A MOMENT...
In humans, there are healthy limits to the % of intramuscular fat that we should have. If our lifestyle choices cause an increase in our % of IMF, negative health effects can result, including:
-
obesity
-
loss of strength and mobility
-
insulin resistance
-
diabetes
-
Duchenne muscular dystrophy
-
neuromuscular diseases
and more....
Ya, ya - I know - cattle aren't humans! But mammalian biological systems carry a lot of similarities across species, and WE KNOW that high grain diets cause obesity in cattle, as well as various diseases and other gut/digestive related problems.
And yet, we have a national industry (~96%) that INTENTIONALLY feeds animals in an unhealthy way because they can raise them faster; therefore, selling more beef and increasing their profits.
So, what would you do if the meat from this new, efficient (and extremely profitable) system LOOKS and TASTES different...
You could:
a) keep spending more time and money raising the original high quality product, with a smaller profit margin, OR...
b) find a way to convince customers that your lower quality product is actually better, and keep the cash flow comin'
Decisions, decisions....
So, conveniently enough, we now have a beef grading system created by the government and the largest industry leaders that FOCUSSES on marbling... it's one of the primary indicators of 'high quality' beef. They pour millions of dollars into marketing and advertising, telling everyone that marbling is what "educated" consumers look for. If you REALLY know your cuts of beef, then you'll be able to tell the difference between Prime marbling and that lower quality Grade A beef....
So, they play on our natural human desire to be esteemed - to be viewed as educated, or sophisticated, or have 'high-class' taste.
Does it actually taste different? Absolutely.
Grain-fed beef is more buttery and subtle due to the high fat content. So they tell you that's what real beef IS SUPPOSED to taste like... and the more 'experts' SAY it's so, the more everyone believes it. And there are plenty of people who very much enjoy that taste - and that's their choice to make, and I respect that.
But, if we just work backwards through the process... it literally means that:
-
the more grain the animal was fed
-
the more obese and unhealthy it would be
-
and more marbling would be present in the meat
-
therefore, it gets a higher Grade
Now, to me... that's counterintuitive if we're aiming at high-quality, nutrient dense, healthy food. I would think the healthiest animal would produce the healthiest meat, not the other way around.....
But hey, I'm just a farmer....
So, while our beef isn't federally graded, what we can tell you is that our beef is 100% certified organic, grass-fed & finished. We raise them on an intensive rotational grazing pasture throughout the green months; and during the winter they receive forage rations from feed that we've had lab tested for nutritional information, and then we actually have an animal nutritionist custom balance a ration to ensure they receive a balanced diet.
On our farm we go to great lengths to ensure our animals are well cared for, and fed the best they can be.
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No hormone therapy treatments/growth promoters EVER
-
No use of pesticides (or any other -cides), or feeding treated crops
-
we don't touch GMOs
-
no vaccines
-
no antibiotic use
And we personally back it with our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee!
So, we don't want their stamp on our beef. We like the way we do things, and have no intention of following their lead or meeting their standards - because, frankly, we think our standards are better. They are higher. They are healthier.
And we want to have a real relationship with our customers so that our 100% satisfaction guarantee is a true promise of a quality product...
and one that you can trust.