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Northeast Iowa | The Certified Angus Beef program was started in about 1978. Back then, the industry had just switched the grading standards a year or two before and lowered the requirement for USDA Choice. The idea was that it was marbling that Angus cattle were known for, and the recently introduced breeds from Europe were making it tough to get cattle to grade. So if it's harder to get a decent grade out of the national herd, what's the best way around that? Lower the standards, of course! All of a sudden, every kid gets a trophy in the contest. The folks at the Angus Association (especially Mick Colvin) wanted a way to distinguish their animals. They worked with USDA and got a separate brand to put on carcasses that met the requirements. Those requirements were for cattle that graded in the upper 2/3 of Choice. It's been a few years since I was at the meeting, but I remember seeing data that showed that 76% of all cattle grading Choice graded Low Choice. Using the pre-1976 grading standards, those cattle would all grade Select (or USDA Good at that time) and only 24% would grade Choice. The CAB standards basically matched the previous standards for USDA Choice. They had other requirements like no dairy character and no hump to keep the other black breeds and crosses at the time from qualifying. Then other breeds in the 1980's and 1990's suddenly had black animals show up. Without using DNA typing at line speeds in packing plants, there's no way to tell if that black Simmi looking calf had an Angus sire and a Simmi mother or no Angus at all, so he still qualifies. Get an accurate DNA test capable of keeping up at line speeds and then maybe you'll see some black cattle not qualify for CAB anymore, but it probably won't suddenly drop the acceptance rate in half or anything.
Edited by RFI90 3/8/2012 20:37
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Angus Red vs Black
