Found an old USDA chart about beef grading from the 70s

I was cleaning out my uncle's shop in Boise and found a faded paper chart. It showed that in 1975, over 60% of beef was graded Prime or Choice. Now it's under 40%. The chart was tucked inside a meat ledger. Makes you wonder about changes in cattle feed and breeding. Has anyone else seen old data that surprised them?

3 comments

3 Comments

evakelly10d ago

My local butcher showed me his cost sheets from 1990. The price difference between Choice and Select was maybe a dollar a pound. Now it's like highway robbery. They've turned the middle grade into a luxury item to make the cheap stuff seem normal.

kelly38510d ago

Yeah, that tracks. Everything's getting pushed down a grade so they can charge more for what used to be standard.

wood.eric9d ago

Wait, the chart was just stuffed in with the day to day paperwork? That's the wild part to me. They treated that fact like it was no big deal, just another note about the stock. It really shows how normal that quality used to be. Now we'd frame that data and hang it in the office as some lost golden age.