How to Get a Beef Carcass Inspected for Prime
There are several situations where you may wish to have a beef carcass inspected and rated as "Prime," the highest-quality beef. You may be selling your homegrown beef, or maybe you own an eatery and wish to purchase your beef directly from the rancher. Whatever the reason, it is not impossible to have your beef carcass inspected and rated Prime.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Livestock processing plant
- Licensed federal grader
- Livestock transportation
Instructions
-
-
1
Contact your state Department of Agriculture to obtain a list of livestock processing plants in your area. You should be able to find the Department of Agriculture contact information either in the state government pages of your phone book, or on your state official website.
-
2
Decide if you need a processing facility that will kill and process your beef or one that only processes. In most cases, a processing plant that can do both the kill and process will save you time and be more efficient over having your beef killed at one location, then moving your beef to the processing facility.
-
-
3
Select a processing facility that has a licensed federal grader on the premises. Although some states do have their own graders, a federal grader is the standard. There will be no doubts from your customers when you have your beef graded by a licensed federal grader.
-
4
Contact the processing facility and arrange to visit and possibly tour the plant. All processing plants must meet a standard for cleanliness and procedure, but you may find one or two you like the looks of better than others. Also, some processors will not process a single beef after grading because it means they must clean the machines to ensure no other beef is mixed with your graded beef.
-
5
Set an appointment with the processing facility and the licensed federal grader to have your beef killed, inspected, graded and processed.
-
6
Transport your beef to the processing facility at the appointed time. Before your appointment, decide how you wish your beef to be processed and cut. You can select the types and amounts of different beef cuts depending on your needs.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
To qualify for the Prime grading your beef will need to be from a young, well-fed animal.
