Montana Beef Quality Assurance Certification Course

• Tutorial Main
• Introduction
  • Education Team
  • Intro to BQA
  • BQA History / Nat. Audits
  • 2005 Nat. Audit
  • Top 10 Industry Goals
  • Defining Quality Beef / Cattle Care
• Regional Curriculum
• Record Keeping
  • Effective Record Keeping
  • Information Recorded
• Care & Handling
  • Producer Attitude
  • Animal Behavior
  • Facilities & Transportation
  • Nutrition
• Feed & Additives
  • Feed
  • Additives
  • Handling / Monitoring
• Animal Health
  • Vaccines
  • Injections
  • Needles
  • Implants
  • Parasite Control
  • Antimicrobials
• Processing
  • Vaccinations
  • Dehorning & Castration
  • Identification
  • Weaning
• Carcass Quality
  • Quality Grade
  • Yield Grade
  • Other Quality Issues
• Marketing
  • Source & Age Verificiation
  • Market Timing
  • Cow Marketing
  • Feeder Calf Grades
  • Shrink
• Breeding & Genetics
  • Uniformity & Consistency
  • EPDs
  • Crossbreeding
• Biosecurity Basics
  • Disease Control
  • Learning Tough Lessons
  • Attention to Zoonotics
  • Agroterrorism
• Certification Process
• MT BQA Directives
• BQA Code
• Certification Exam

Funded, in part, by beef and veal producers and importers through their $1-per-head check off through the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Feeder Calf Grades

The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 originally mandated the standards for feeder calf grades. Changes were made to the grading standards for live feeder cattle in October 2000. They offer a valuable tool for marketing of cattle and calves and certify the grades used to make contracts for cattle on the futures market.

The grade of feeder cattle is determined by evaluating three general value-determining characteristics: Frame size, thickness, and thriftiness. Frame size is a skeletal measurement that takes into consideration height and body length in relation to age. Thickness refers to the development of the individual animal’s muscling in relation to its skeletal size. Thriftiness is an appraisal of the apparent health of the animal and its ability to grow and fatten normally.

Frame size standards for thrifty feeder cattle are assigned one of three marks, L (large frame), M (medium frame), and S (small frame). Large–frame steers and heifers would be expected to reach a U.S. Choice carcass grade at Yield Grade 3 (about 0.5 inches of fat at the 12th rib) at a weight heavier than 1,250 pounds. The chart above shows the other weight/frame size relationships for both steers and heifers.

The thickness (muscling) grades range from Number 1 to 4. "Inferior" cattle are unthrifty and are not expected to perform normally in their present state and include those that are "double muscled." Inferior cattle can have any combination of thickness and frame size.

Therefore, where we have had only four grades or so to concern ourselves with in the past, we now have 13. They are L1, L2, L3, L4, M1, M2, M3, M4, S1, S2, S3, S4, and Inferior. This will give potential buyers an even clearer picture of the calves offered for sale. Producers and buyers alike will benefit as the entire beef industry looks to improve the quality and consistency of the product that eventually finds its way to our dinner table.

	Steers	Heifers
Frame Size	Estimated harvest weight lbs.
Small	1100	1000
Medium	1100–1250	1000–1150
Large	>1250	>1150

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