NFO-233 (AV10733) US Farm Report: Cattle Bargaining Report (Part II)

this is one of the cooling rooms at Dugdale packing company in St. Joseph Missouri on today's us farm report Andy Knightsling an assistant in the meat department of the national farmers organization will be showing us beef cuts as well as evaluating and the grading of beef carcasses this is a part of what you'll see on today's show so stay tuned [music] hi everybody and welcome to us farm report the subject of this week's show is the National Farmers organization's cattle bargaining program and this is part two last week you'll recall we dealt with this same subject this week we bring it to a conclusion once again I welcome back as a special guest on my far right mr. Gene Potter Gene is the director of the meat commodity department of the national farmers organization Gene welcome back and next to Gene on my immediate right is the assistant to the director of the meat commodity department mr. Andy Knightsling hello Andy hello bill welcome to our show thank you you're going to be seeing quite a bit of Andy today because he's going to give us a great deal of instruction and training the same kind of instruction and training that has passed along to NFO plant representatives and packing plants all across the country Andy last week on our show Gene talked to us about the fact that many dealers and so-called market experts talk about protecting the cattle producers interests in the packing plants but they talk about it without having had much experience and no training at all but this is not so right where NFO is concerned that's correct built our plant men are trained on the live basis also on the meat evaluation on the carcass evaluation the plant man knows how to properly identify the cattle how to handle the cattle when they when they're received this reduces our bruises also you make sure that the cattle are rested properly before they're killed he checks the cattle in the plant itself on the kill floor to make sure the trim isn't in excess should get a regular packing house trim and nothing more mm-hmm there's where your weigh is and this is where your money is dealt with in the carcass he checks the life of the dress scales to see that they're offering properly he checks the in the cooler that all the cattle have the proper chill on him if the cattle are fallible call fallen away that you cannot get a proper grade on them make sure that is done he also is sort of a tour guide man in the plant when when you have your producers come in want to see their cattle he helps them out actually they're encouraged to come in aren't they without a doubt they'd like to see each and every one of them well now it takes a lot of training to prepare a plant representative to carry on those many duties efficiently and this is the kind of training that you and Gene and the people in your department are carrying on with all of these plant representatives across the country right yes back to the matter is ladies and gentlemen Andy will now show us the kind of training NFO representatives receive in the area of the quality grading of meet Andy the housewife I think concerns herself mainly with prime and choice grades of meat but the USDA designates a number of grades does it not yes they do bill they designate eight different grades there's the prime your choice your good standard utility and in your cows there's a cutter in canner boner and a commercial well now to the man who raises cattle based on the current market what is the difference in dollars and cents to him between having an animal graded prime we'll say and choice on today's market bell it'd be approximately four and a half dollars four and a half between the state standard and your prime grading heifer and steer alright well let's get into this grading matter and we'd like for you to show us some of the things the the greater looks for when he inspects the animal inspects the carcass now on the one hand by the way for our viewers and we have here a prime carcass this this this animal rated this one is what is graded standard standard yes so there are about four grades actually between this animal yes okay first of all bill in the grader looks at the animal the animal is ribbed down and by ribbed down bill we mean is by the twelfth rib and it's cut just like this then the grader looks into the the texture of the meat firmness of this meat now this animal here is a prime animal the marbling by marbling I mean the specs of fatty tissue it actually is like tallow the coloring [unclear] is in this now this animal is an abundant amount of marbling there's a it reaches anywhere from mostly abundant to down to traces then they look at the conformation of your animal now this animal you can know it the fullness of the round the very plump round then go into your standard grade such as this here round is sloped it's far from being such as this one again you go back to your prime animal your prime fullness of your loin your loin is popping out so to speak on your standard it's something in now this carcass for a standard is a fairly good standard carpet but as you can see by the two comparisons the standard is considerably amount less than quality prime and now bill let's look at the marbling aspect of these two carcasses you take the prime carcass the abundant the abundance of marbling and it compared to the standard carcass with the traces of marbling well now exactly what is marbling and the marbling is the actually it deals with the quality of the cattle the more of the marbling the better the the taste juiciness the texture of the meat itself the marbling itself is tallow I suppose well there is it fatty or what is it it's actually it's a substance like like fat it isn't considered fat yes well then if the marbling does all that to the cut of meat of course this is the very thing that the consumer should look for at the point of purchase in the supermarket right without a doubt bill the last two carcasses we looked at them for prime and standard we have a choice and a good in front of us now these are that's right between the other two is that's right that's right now the animal at here is a very high good quality you notice if we compare the choice with this good you can see that the marbling in here and the marbling on this choice is about of the same but it does lack in this area and in here this would be an average choice this would be a very high good well in other words in the good animal right here in in the I there are many areas really when you look at it carefully that do not have the marbling that is correct and the marbling although this is an average choice does extend quite thoroughly through through the I correct now this animal with another I would say 30 days of feed if not less would have gone into the choice this is what a lot of packers call fall out choice kill but there they are in the good grade well and the aren't there some other important factors in carcass evaluation yes there are bill the sex and the maturity of the animal are quite important and II how do you determine the sex of the animal as it hangs from the rail well bill that's a very good the question that arises quite frequently to our memories that come in for our grade and yield purpose in the first time on the stair you'll notice that you have a pistol eye to call a pistol eye it's nothing other than the glob of meat I'll see very clearly on the steer then on the heifer itself it lacks the pistol eye you have nothing you have also you have the H bone on the heifer which is straighter than the steer H bone if you notice this deer has a curvature of the H bone the H bone H bone yes now on the heifer the heifer in the area of the utter is smooth and comparing that with the steers this is called the cod fat on the steer and you'll know it again that it's rougher on the steers than it is on the hip now bill as we are talking about maturity we have here a young choice steer a yearling to a an old commercial cow now if we compare the bone structure of these cows this is of this cow to this steer one of the ways they have in classifying the maturity of the animals now you can see the cartilage on this animal here is white and what they call a butt now this is the young steer on this old commercial cow this bone is completely ossified it's completely white this is a sign of age now up on the vertebrae is completely fused together it's just one massive bowl on your younger choice dear there's areas of soft substance between it such as a bone your finger such this is how they don't class of the classify the animal as the age itself by years but in the variation of all too young what would be your guess Andy be in the difference in age between this animal that we looked at where the bone is completely ossified and this this animal here well this is I I would say offhand now this would be close to about two years old this I would say with being the safe guess would be a good ten years old well now the greeter does this in order to arrive at his judgment in what this animal should grade for example on this older animal you say is about ten years old the the eye looks pretty good but by opening the rib and checking the bone seeing the ossification then the greater will grade this animal down a bit because of that right yes it will for instance if we had take you had mentioned that the marbling on this animal compared to this animal was fairly good well yes it is but you notice the texture of this meat it's as darker compared to your young choice do this is a cherry red substance this would be a deep red substance now as far as youth goes in the grading you can use here your maturity will off balance your marbling in other words if if this animal is a little older in order for it to go into the prime it had to have more marbling now Andy Knightsling talks about the subjects of grubs bruises and yield grade now is this an example of bruising or is this grub damage this carcass bill here is example of bruises basically transit bruises the damage is done away from the loin but yet it may come back in the short rib but are actually the although all the rib itself is damaged and you can see it's been cut out completely cut out where is that cutting of bruises done and this is all done in the kill floor they had it's a necessity to cut it out in the kill floor it's against the government regulations to bring them in the cooler any damage do your bruises they the government has investigated bruises quite thoroughly and they feel that your bruises are basically done inserting of cattle and in transit where you have sorting out the cavity of swinging gate catches the animal on the side and you think nothing of it but as it's opened up it has a hemorrhaging of the laceration and so what then they just have to cut it completely out they cannot save that carcass at all that would mean well now here a Dugdale packing company in St. Joseph hen fo has its representative mr. Lester Carr whom we have interviewed on us farm report in the past he has counterparts in packing plants all across the country as I understand it and this is one of the things I recall Lester said about his job here that he is able to assist NFO members here Dugdale in this area of the unloading of beef cattle when cattle come here to Dugdale he can more or less oversee the unloading and try to avoid this bruising as much as possible because bruising of cattle obviously means a lower price for cattle that's correct we have been all of our plants the NFO men is gone over this with our people come out as a figure that they can arrive by what this animal would be worth to the packer into the farmer as we have gone through the carcasses all today the goods the choice and so forth this plant man issues actually pot this so he knows what to look for in the plant to better our protection over our members let's talk about this carcass for a moment now although it's pretty badly bruised I noticed that the government grater has grated this carcass choice so where is the loss in the bruised animal is it in weight well it isn't weight to some degree but it is also in the loss of the wholesale cuts you have your wholesale cut now this would be your loin in here this is completely damaged and this bruising may go back in a little further therefore some packers use it as a xxx loin or a triple K whatever they see fit same is on your on your rib itself your rib is bruised here this is where your basic loss comes from you can't sell this cut for the same price as you would sell it on a regular choice it is choice grade but it's the quality of the cut well let's go over and take a look at this grub damage incidentally Andy what is the grub how does it affect the cattle well little insect that starts way back in the feet and it goes up through the hooks of the animal and up into the loin now if we if we look bill you see that the animal when it's mature it comes out of the loin itself and you have the damage such as this and then the damage of this now this when the animal is when the when the insect is still in the carcass it has to be cut out and again you get into the xxx loin or whatever you call you also have one right here this is this is a brute grub damage to this carcass by the way is not very the damage on this is minor there are many many worst carcasses in this that where the complete loin is all dug in now you'll notice that the meat itself on this carcass is not damaged but the the covering is now you take you cannot age a loin like this because of the damage of the covering if you leave this animal aged you'll see this little spoil the meat itself and not the outside once again Andy in the case of grub damage does this lower the grade of the carcass or is it just on cash man no it is simply the value of the animal now this animal bill is it good in other words this animal would have graded good if it had had no damage yes that's correct I would say 95% of course you can get your ear bruises and your grubs so bad that you have to cut into the loin itself where you would normally break your carcass for grading at the 12th rib you may have to go down to the to the eleventh or so forth if you notice there's one rib on this side and this is where they they cut it and this is where they great but it is basically it isn't the the downgrading of the carcass it is the carcass that is damaged to such agree that they have to deduct it in the side Andy we've talked a great deal today about quality grading what about yield grading well built in 1965 the United States agricultural department introduced a great system whereas the carcass is evaluated to the credibility by credibility I mean the actual pounds of meat to the to the pounds of the carcass there's three basics that they take into consideration on a yield grade that is the area if we can kind of look at this that is the area of your ribeye you're outside thickness of your fat and the the pelvic heart and kidney fat also you have the weight factor into kinetics into consideration now we have seen the number one and we've seen the number five is that the range of yield rating null bill there's a one two three four and five we have two extremes in the front of us and this is you can kind of see the actual size of your ribeye and the size of your your external fat well now it seems the rather obvious to me that this should be graded lowest in yield grade and this highest because the yield on this carcass will be so much less than this one mainly as I see it because of the fat on the carcass that's correct but yet you also have to take into consideration your internal factor your kidney pelvic and heart fat now if you if you can compare you can see the amount of fat inside the cavity here compared to your yield grade yes now in your verification you take a yield grade one for instance what it would approximately have for 13 to 14 inches of square edible meat with a covering of perhaps maybe point-to-point or nine or something in this area also the percentage of the kidney heart and pelvic fat now if you have a bigger eye and you have a little more fat on the outside this is taken to consideration now you take the two animals and put them together I don't think there's much of a question of which one you would rather have yet they are both choice animals one is worth considerably amount a considerable amount more than the other approximately in some cases the reports the government's put out up to ten dollars and 28 cents which is a considerable amount to the retailer I think this might be something very new to the consumer Andy the consumer of course is aware of quality grading because this is important to him at the point of purchase but this this grading yield grading is really not of all that importance to the consumer but it certainly is to to the the cattle-raiser and it is to be to the man who buys the carcasses that is very much so bill and I feel we're going to see more yield rating of cattle some packing houses just do it a little at a time very little grating some do all yield grading but this is going to be a thing upcoming thing and the reason for this is when when you read an animal into a yield grade one a man should be paid for a yield grade one if it is fed fortunately these days we don't see too many year eight five it wasn't too long ago that you did but they're getting away from us but yet you can see again the value of each carcass and being in the same grain well all I can say is that this program has to be most impressive to everybody and particularly to cattle producers now a Gene how does the cattle producer get into the program well bill very simply first of all he has to be a member of the NFO the National Farmers Organization and for any non-members that might be watching in with us of course they can contact any local NFO member or call or write our national office here in Corning Iowa once they become a member then they're to contact their County bargaining structure or their county officers for direction as to how they can participate in this program well this new marketing program is certainly a far cry from the old structure wouldn't you agree yes bill we think it is it's a dynamic new bargaining program that give the producers the opportunity to participate with their production use their production in a block to where it can be used for their benefit not against them and they have representation that makes sure that their interests are protected while they are using their pro their production to make progress in a bargaining program I think that we're all aware of the fact that we have lived with and under a marketing structure for a number of years that has been termed by many as a competitive marketing system that as producers for some reason we were getting the short end of the stick and I think that as we become more knowledgeable about what actually goes on in livestock marketing in this instance particularly cattle marketing we can see that there are many things that can be done if we work together as a group give you a little example I'm sure all of you has cattle feeders have been in a sale barn for instance with three major companies or three companies represented buying cattle and one of the buyers seems to buy all the heifers and one of the buyers buys the majority of the steers and consequently another the majority of the cows many times there are killed they are killers that could use all three but they have a tendency it appears not to want to compete against one another and by particular class themselves in the overall bargaining program many times when as producers we participate and the results that really indicate success become reasons for us to be concerned I'd like to give me an example because not too long ago in a meeting in Idaho I believe it was one of the national officers of the organization was there and a member of NFO had participated in a blocked bargaining program he was relaying the conversation and was discussing the fact that he had shipped some cattle out of Idaho to a plant that NFO had a contract with some of his cattle to be sold and he said before they even reached that plant the local buyer that we've referred to before was they're offering me what appeared to be more money than I actually had when selling through an expose program well this was success in itself because the day he loaded those cattle the mar- the NFO program was a price that was higher than what the local market was yet before the cattle even reached the plant the local buyer had come back and bid a higher price now this is the success of the program and the only thing that the producer has to do is keep that block together until that buyer is not only willing to pay a higher price but willing to sign a contract with that block of production with the group of members within fo to maintain that price and protect the gains that the producer made Gene I want to thank you very much for being our guest once again on US farm report it's been our pleasure having you thank you Bill and Andy many thanks to you thank you our special guests on today's u.s. farm report have missed Ben mr. Gene Potter who is director of the meat commodity department at the National Farmers Organization and and the night sling an assistant to the director US farm report is seen on this station each week at the same time until we meet again so long everybody