The USDA beef grades have been the same for many years. Some people feel that it\u2019s time for changes and updating, to reflect the changes that have been occurring in the beef industry in the past decade. The best carcasses in terms of quality and marbling are not being identified as such, since they are above and beyond Prime.<\/p>\n
Mike Kerby produces Wagyu cattle on his Buck Mountain Ranch in the Missouri Ozarks and has worked hard promoting the Wagyu breed through his Passion for Prime Event. This year\u2019s event will be held in June at Missouri State University and will be a consignment auction and workshop on the Wagyu breed.<\/p>\n
Kerby points out that our labeling\/branding of beef today in the U.S. does not adequately identify marbling. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a marbling system, and we don\u2019t have a labeling system. There has been a lot of talk about a new grading system overall, and at least a grading system that can identify Wagyu beef,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Kerby has been talking to many of the major Wagyu producers in this country. \u201cIt will be hard to come up with a system that labels the percentage such as half Wagyu, half Angus, as opposed to a Fullblood. A lot of the meat being produced is F1 so people don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegarding our current meat grading system, it would probably take an act of Congress to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has talked to numerous ranchers recently to get some input on these two topics (the beef grades, and the need for branding\/labeling Wagyu products) and is hoping to get additional feedback. \u201cPerhaps eventually some of these thoughts could be presented to the American Wagyu Association board and help push something toward branding or labeling,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Labels and advertising can influence public perception and create a positive perception for Wagyu beef. \u201cWhen I was a kid and went to the butcher shop with my parents, the photos behind the meat\u00a0counter were Hereford cattle. Then over the years those photos became black cattle. The Angus breeders simply out-marketed everyone with all their advertising. You go to McDonalds today and get an Angus burger. You go to a restaurant or a grocery store and buy Certified Angus,\u201d says Kerby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at the point now in the Wagyu breed that we have become the best beef producers in America. We are not the biggest, but as far as quality of the meat, day in and day out, Wagyu is it. We are still small enough but getting large enough that we now have to come up with a brand,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should not be American Kobe or American Style Kobe or Kobe Beef. We<\/p>\n
have to promote our own product and not take the name of another product, or we are not being truthful in our labeling.\u201d An article on the Australian Wagyu Association website mentions that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently held an investigation on the labeling of Wagyu beef produced in Australia.<\/p>\n
The ACCC considered this matter in relation to their sections that deal with (1) misleading or deceptive conduct, (2) false or misleading representation that goods are of a particular standard, quality, value, grade, etc. and (3) conduct that is liable to mislead the public as to the nature, manufacturing process, characteristics or suitability for their purposes or quantity of goods. After looking into this matter, the ACCC decided not to pursue it any further at this time. The Australian Wagyu Association assisted with the investigation and welcomed this announcement. The AWA president Peter Gilmour said, \u201cWe continue to support truth in labeling principles fundamental to Australian consumer law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian government dropped the investigation in late December 2015, but Kerby says American Wagyu producers should take note. \u201cHow would you like to be a rancher just trying to make a living and then have someone from the USDA show up and tell you that you\u2019ve violated truth in labeling. One of the things the USDA does is enforce truth in labeling and advertising. If it\u2019s Prime, it had better be Prime,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are we facing the chances of litigation in the future, on the extreme side, but we are not helping ourselves for the future. People are starting to learn about Wagyu beef and what it is. I travel all over the world and see it on menus in many of the nicer hotels, and we\u2019re starting to see it in more and more restaurants. Regarding labeling, we should not be hiding behind another product or saying it\u2019s like Kobe beef. It\u2019s Wagyu beef. Many producers are saying we should just call it American Wagyu, or even just Wagyu,\u201d Kerby says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe we could incorporate the American Wagyu Association logo, which everyone is trying to use, with the branding of this beef. Is it enforceable for the Association to say: \u2018Don\u2019t make us come out there and change your advertising?\u201d No. You or I or a board member have no power to regulate and enforce anything we come up with regarding labeling. But we can highly encourage it, and get everybody\u2019s advertising dollar, whether it\u2019s a person who is selling 10 head of cattle per year or 300 head per year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen producers put their advertising in the local restaurants or high end beef shops, we should have a set logo that everyone will stand behind and that the public will recognize. If we are ever going to become a major player in the industry, we need to have this. If you look at the grade Prime in the U.S., it\u2019s up 2 to 4% from what it was, and this is due to the contribution of Wagyu bulls being used on commercial cattle,\u201d says Kerby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no reason for us to be saying that we are trying to be like the Japanese people, because we are not. We produce great beef here, but I don\u2019t know of anyone in this country who has produced $400 per pound beef, like I\u2019ve seen come out of Kobe, Japan. Yet we have carcasses that could be rated as 4 or 5 grades above Prime. This is where a carcass camera can be useful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very few carcass cameras in the U.S. however. Even if we don\u2019t have a carcass camera, we can come up with an IMF (intramuscular fat, or marbling) score, though it won\u2019t appear on our USDA grade. I personally think it would be a good idea to come up with a logo and labeling that we can all get behind, and push it as much as possible\u2014and discourage the use of the word Kobe. Let\u2019s be proud of what we have. We have the top-of-the-line here and shouldn\u2019t be trying to mimic anybody,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Wagyu has the quality, and will always compete\u2014on any market in the beef industry. \u201cWe can call it American Wagyu or just Wagyu and let the public decide, and hopefully our board will get behind this and do it. I\u2019ve talked to a lot of restaurants in the U.S. and they are all serving Australian Wagyu beef. One of the speakers at my Passion for Prime event 2 years ago said that only 20% of the Wagyu beef eaten in the U.S. is produced in the U.S. Everything else is imported. What a massive market climb we could have, if we could just expand to take over our own market. I don\u2019t want purveyors of nice restaurants and butcher shops to think they have to go to Australia or Japan to get good Wagyu. We need to have a logo and get behind it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He uses state inspectors to ship meat out of the state. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know until recently that there are state graders who will come out and grade our meat. I had one come to my place and he\u2019d never graded a Wagyu before. He wasn\u2019t sure how to grade it because he had no experience with this kind of meat. I had photos of the Japanese marbling scale, and he looked at that, and then guessed that my meat was 4 grades above Prime,\u201d says Kerby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to come up with a grading system. A well-known producer in Australia has his own labeling\u2014C1, C2, C3,\u00a0C4 and C5. He tells his customers that C5 is his prime, and tells them what they\u2019ll pay for it. C1 is good, but not as good as C2, C3 or C4. We can\u2019t tell USDA that we\u2019re going to redo the whole grading system. I\u2019m not saying it can\u2019t happen, but it would take a lot of push from our Association and a lot of marketing, at the national level. That would be a huge uphill battle,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne alternative would be for us, in the Wagyu industry, to have 5 grades, and they could be mixed with the USDA grades. Any carcass that was Prime or above could be a W5 (Wagyu 5), for instance, or whatever we decided to call it\u2014to create some kind of labeling system,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
People who have experience in grading could help guide this and give ideas on how to set it up. \u201cWe could come up with a laddered or grading system that everyone could use, that goes along with the USDA scale. I also think that with the proper information to producers, we could probably get some good feedback that we might be able to compile and maybe make a recommendation to the board,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
This is something the Wagyu industry has needed for a long time. \u201cIt\u2019s been talked about a lot, yet nothing has happened; nobody does anything about it. This year we have 6 auctions scheduled for the Wagyu breed, and that\u2019s the most we\u2019ve ever had. The growth is here. I feel that if we don\u2019t get hold of it now, and get in front of it, it will be harder to catch up later.\u201d The breeders need to get on board and move forward in a unified way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a logo, and we need our name. Our logo should be professionally done, and available to all producers through the AWA or the Texas association. We all need to get behind creating a logo and a common marketing tool,\u201d says Kerby.<\/p>\n
With input from producers who have done this all their lives, it might be possible to come up with a grading system that could be used within the industry so everyone is on the same playing field. \u201cThe worst thing we can do is finally get national recognition because the USDA is investigating claims of misleading advertising!\u201d This is not how Wagyu breeders want to be remembered!<\/p>\n
All the breeders he has talked with on these two topics (consistent, accurate labeling, and a grading system) have said we need to have this, and that it should have been done a long time ago. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to force anybody into anything, but we need to come up with recommendations that might make it a lot easier to implement. We are reaching out to the ranchers and asking for their opinions and ideas on how to do this and improve our system,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to talk to people smarter than me and put together an idea and present it to the board. Hopefully we can have something implemented. This isn\u2019t something I\u2019m wanting to do just for my farm. I want to do this for my industry that I have invested my life and my dollars into, for the next generation. If we start building a brand that we can stand behind and grow behind, this will be better for our future,\u201d says Kerby.<\/p>\n
The present grading system started with ideas at an earlier time. People have to start somewhere and create something that works and stands the test of time. \u201cOur current grading system for beef is antiquated and probably needs to be updated. As a good place to start, why can\u2019t we lobby\u2014from our association\u2014and say that the present grading system just doesn\u2019t go high enough for this breed of cattle. We need a new system because often these cattle will go far above Prime. That would be great marketing, to reach the people who have never heard of Wagyu. We have advantages that we talk about inside the industry, but those advantages have to be screamed from the hilltop so the consumer can hear it. If that happens, we all win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meat-eating public needs to realize there is beef available that goes beyond what consumers have traditionally considered top-of-the-line. \u201cI was at a grocery store recently and saw a display of certified USDA Choice Angus beef! They are promoting Choice! That\u2019s like saying \u2018we have the best average beef on the market\u2019 but it\u2019s advertising, and people don\u2019t understand the grades enough to know what to buy. We\u2019ll never have a Prime cut or a Wagyu 5 cut and have everybody understand it, but we could get behind the breed, the labeling, the marketing, so we are unified, and everybody\u2019s advertising dollar is pushing the same agenda and make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerby feels strongly that we need to do it soon, because the bigger the Wagyu industry becomes, the harder it will be to turn this big ship around. Even if the average consumer doesn\u2019t understand a grading system, the people who are buying meat for high end catering, restaurants, etc. will understand it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have a uniform logo, it could be on the menus at the restaurants. This could help educate the consumer, advertising this breed of cattle. It could be used ultimately for retail purposes,\u201d says Kerby.<\/p>\n
Angus breeders started their marketing a few years back and it has paid off for them today. \u201cWe are not going to be the everyday beef, like Angus. That\u2019s not going to happen. But we are the premium beef and we need to be marketing as the premium beef and the healthiest beef,\u201d he says. It\u2019s an educational process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I know about marketing is that you have to tell people something multiple times because at first they are not going to remember it. If they see or hear it enough, it starts to sink in, and maybe feel that it\u2019s something they want to remember. If we are all using the same labeling for this beef, every time there\u2019s advertising in a magazine or a restaurant or a butcher shop, it\u2019s repetitive and something people will come to recognize. We need to have a brand, and the ultimate goal of any association is not to promote itself but to promote the cattle.\u201d Without the cattle, you won\u2019t have an association.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to take that step. If a group of people agree upon it and the associations get behind it and help create the final plan, we can move forward. We are still in our growing, infancy stage with this breed, but we are no longer taking baby steps. We need to become organized in our advertising. Right now, there are many different logos and everyone keeps changing them. We need to get a logo and focus our marketing and stand behind it.\u201d The element of recognition is lost if things keep changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith 10 different ranchers advertising their beef 8 different ways, it\u2019s confusing. I really think the grading part will be the hardest. At our Passion for Prime auction in June I am going to try to get a meat grader from the state of Missouri to come and speak. This could\u00a0give us some insight, realizing that we do have cattle that quite often will go Prime or above, and an opportunity to ask the questions about what it would take to get a new grading system. Even if that\u2019s not possible, maybe we as an industry can come up with something that will work\u2014regardless of whether we are producing F1s or fullbloods or purebreds, to be graded on this scale,\u201d says Kerby. This is something everyone could stand behind, recognizing the exceptional carcasses\u2014whatever they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can come up with something simple that everybody was using, we may not have to reinvent the whole wheel. We\u2019d have something that everybody could relate to, and the meat buyers and chefs could relate to, over time, and we don\u2019t want it to get a black eye from a consumer protection agency or the USDA. If we are not truthful in our labeling, at some point it will come back to bite us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He feels that the Wagyu associations should eventually come up with guidelines for the industry, and a logo that could be downloaded off the website to use on menus, websites and advertising. \u201cWe just need to all get behind it, for the future of our breed. I think we will have a long run and a great future. I want this to be a family legacy for our children. The better we can make this breed, the better it will be for our children and grandchildren and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The USDA beef grades have been the same for many years. Some people feel that it\u2019s time for changes and updating, to reflect the changes that have been occurring in the beef industry in the past decade. The best carcasses in terms of quality and marbling are not being identified as such, since they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n