Opportunities to improve the accuracy of the United States Department of Agriculture beef yield grade equation through precision agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) yield grade (YG) equation is used to predict the retail yield of beef carcasses, which facilitates a more accurate payment for cattle when they are sold on a grid pricing system that considers carcass composition instead of body weight alone. The current USDA YG equation was developed over 50 yr ago. Arguably, the population of cattle used to develop the YG equation is different than the current diverse U.S. beef cattle supply today. The objectives of this manuscript are to promote the adoption and use of precision agriculture technologies (i.e., camera grading and electronic animal identification) throughout the U.S. beef supply chain as a means to enhance the ability of the USDA YG equation to more accurately predict the retail yield across the population of cattle that contributes to the current U.S. beef supply. Camera grading has improved the accuracy of determining beef carcass retail yield; however, the use of electronic animal identification would allow for additional information to be passed back and forth between the packer, cattle feeder, and producer. Information, such as sex, genetics, medical treatment history, diets consumed, and growth promotant administration, as well as other information could be used to create additional variables for a new augmented USDA YG equation. Herein, fabrication yields demonstrated a 5.6 USDA YG and 12.8% boneless closely trimmed retail cut difference between actual cutout measurements and calculated values from the USDA YG equation for Jersey-influenced cattle. Evidence of such disparities between calculated and actual values warrants a reevaluation of the USDA YG system and consideration for implementing advancements in precision agriculture to improve the prediction of beef carcass retail yield to more accurately account for the large amount of variation in beef carcass retail yield from the cattle in the United States.