06/27/2026
Focus on what makes money.
This article is vital for cattleman to understand and it’s why the $values at the Angus Association need tweaked (the current $values way over value marbling) high choice/prime, yield grade 2’s, heavy weight cattle that can convert feed….make the most money.
Too many of these super high marbling bulls produce yield grade 4 and 5 calves. The discounts outweigh the premiums and many are poor converters to top it off.
Most grid sellers understand quality grade. Prime usually has the most marbling, Choice is in the middle, and Select is leaner and often prices below Choice depending on the weekly spread.
Fewer producers really use yield grade, even though it is scored on every USDA graded fed beef carcass and strongly affects grid value. Yield grade is a 1 to 5 index that predicts the percent of boneless, closely trimmed retail cuts from the round, loin, rib, and chuck. Yield grade 1 is the highest cutability, yield grade 5 the lowest. USDA tables place yield grade 1 above about 52 percent closely trimmed retail cuts and yield grade 5 below about 45 percent.
Yield grade uses four inputs: adjusted fat thickness over the ribeye at the 12th rib, hot carcass weight, ribeye area, and kidney pelvic heart fat. A carcass starts at a preliminary yield grade of 2.0 and gains about 0.25 yield grade points for every extra 0.1 inch of backfat before adjustments for ribeye area, carcass weight, and KPH. This is why more external fat and very heavy carcasses push yield grade up, while larger ribeye area relative to weight pulls yield grade down.
On many current US grids, yield grade 4 and 5 carcasses still get sizable discounts, but the exact dollars move over time and by program. AMS and university summaries show that YG 4 and YG 5 discounts have commonly been in the mid single digits to low double digits per hundredweight over recent years, with wide swings by packer and region. A 900 pound carcass with an 8 dollar per hundredweight discount would lose about 72 dollars per head against the base, even if it earned a moderate quality grade premium. The point is not the exact number, but that poor yield grade can easily erase quality grade gains.
For most commercial grids, the sweet spot is Choice or Prime with yield grade 2 or 3 and acceptable carcass weights. That combination usually delivers strong eating quality and good cutability without heavy fat discounts. Genetics and management that build marbling at moderate backfat and carcass weight are what let you hit that target. Many Angus and Angus cross cattle have been selected to do exactly that, which is why they often perform well in grid systems.
Sources: USDA AMS carcass beef grades and yield grade tables; Beef Checkoff Beef Grading fact sheet; Oklahoma State University, Kentucky, and Oregon State beef carcass grading publications; USDA AMS grid premium and discount reports and recent Certified Angus Beef grid summaries.
