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Beef producers have created brand names for their steaks and roasts

Beef producers have created brand names for their steaks and roasts

What's in a name?

When people used to talk about branding beef, a ranch scene sprang to mind. A cowboy would ride in from stage left, his lariat swinging. He'd rope and throw a huge longhorn, and another cowboy, usually wearing tough, leather chaps, would step in with a hot branding iron. The brand was the indelible mark of ownership.

Today, branding occurs in the supermarket. Beef producers have created brand names for their steaks and roasts, be it Coleman Natural Beef at Whole Foods or Creekstone Farms Black Angus at Shadyside Market, in hopes of convincing consumers that their beef is so good it's worth more money.

Certified Angus Beef, one of the best-known brands -- not to be confused with Creekstone Farms Black Angus -- pioneered the practice more than 25 years ago, and the trend is taking off like a stampede. In Sewickley, for example, Select Food Market carries three brands of beef: Niman Ranch Hormone-Free Beef, Coleman Natural Beef and CAB.

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The question for the consumer: Does the brand necessarily represent better-tasting meat?

A brand such as CAB may breed confidence, but it also may confuse. Is the CAB at Giant Eagle necessarily different from, say, the Creekstone Farms Black Angus at Festival Foods? Could the plain old USDA Choice grade rib-eye steak in the meat cooler be just as tender and tasty -- and cheaper, too?

The savvy consumer knows that a brand name isn't worth anything unless it's linked with quality. This coupling has worked for commodities-turned-brands such as Idaho potatoes and Vidalia onions.

Dr. Harlan Ritchie, who has worked at Michigan State University for 46 years, first at the university, now in the Cooperative Extension, says the trend is clear. Today, about 20 percent of all beef is branded, he says.

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"I predict by the end of this decade that 60 percent of all beef will be branded," he said from his home in Okemos, Mich.

Beef brands appear everywhere. Some, like CAB, are related to the breed of the cattle. Brands that focus on organic and "natural production" are also growing in popularity.

Ritchie calls CAB "by far the biggest brand."

So what, exactly, does that mean? It actually has less to do with the breed of the animal, Angus, than with the higher quality standard.

An animal doesn't have to be a purebred Angus to be selected for CAB. Although a purebred Black Angus is all black, white-faced black cattle turn up in CAB herds. Because skin color is a dominant trait, when Angus bulls are crossed with Hereford cows, the calf will have the requisite black skin, though with a white head. The popular crossbreeds even have a name: Black Baldy.

To further confuse the consumer, there is also a breed called Red Angus, which cannot be a CAB, although it's just an Angus with a red coat.

Quality standards

But just because an animal is black doesn't mean it tastes better than any other beef. That has to do with the beef's quality, which is based on standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA judges beef based on factors that influence juiciness and flavor such as marbling -- the intermuscular fat that imparts flavor -- and designates by grade; USDA Prime is the highest, followed by Choice and Select.

The Black Angus Association says it takes a higher grade of beef -- only top Choice or Prime -- for the CAB label, which represents less than 8 percent of the nation's cattle market, says CAB corporate chef Dianna Stoffer. And, of the black-hided, beef-type animals that are eligible, "Only one in five will be selected," she says.

Farmers are paid more for beef that meet CAB standards. Though brand-name bonuses vary dramatically, a typical premium might be $4.50 per hundred pounds, or about an extra $50 per animal. In some cases, that would double the producer's usually thin profit margin for beef.

Eventually color will play a lesser role, Ritchie believes. "People will come to their senses. Does this color make that much difference? Let's get real. It isn't the coat color, when a majority of the cattle are black anyway. The red ones are going to have the same genetics. In fact, Red Angus are doing pretty well."

At the same time, Ritchie calls CAB "quite a success story." "In 1981 or 1982, they came within one vote of giving up on it, of CAB not even existing," he recalls. "There are a lot of Angus brands out there, but CAB has protected its brand."

CAB was started after the USDA changed its grades in the mid-1970s. The changes resulted in many carcasses that were once graded Select (this grade was called Good in the 1970s) moving up to the second-highest grade -- Choice. And some beef moved from Choice to Prime, which still remains a tiny percentage of beef sold and goes mostly to restaurants.

"They lowered the standard by one-third of a grade," Ritchie says, explaining that less marbling was required to get the higher grade. "What was the Good grade could now be low Choice."

This new "low Choice" didn't have as much flavor because it had less marbling, says Ritchie, who has his doctorate in animal husbandry. The problem was that the words "high" and "low" were not linked with the word Choice, so many Angus breeders thought their beef was being priced right along with beef of lesser quality.

The Angus Association decided to do something about it. "I can tell you exactly when Certified Angus started, because I knew the men who started it -- it was 1978," Ritchie says.

At the time, many American stockmen were importing the bigger-boned European breeds such as Charolais, Simmental and Gelbvieh to crossbreed with their cows, he says.

"CAB's purpose was to be able to market more Angus bulls. The bull market [an important source of profit for Angus breeders] was eroding, and the Angus Association was struggling and losing market share to the continental breeds."

According to Eileen Keller of CAB, the Angus breeders at the time said, "We grow better beef than that -- let's market it."

Says Ritchie: "They thought they could offer a higher quality product -- mid-Choice and higher, and it worked."

While some cattle producers were angry about the lowered standards, others were happy to see the grades lowered because it was easier -- and less expensive -- to fatten an animal to reach the Choice grade.

"Texas A&M did a study, and they found out that a lot of people liked the leanness of Good vs. the marbling of Choice," Ritchie recalls. "Then they embellished the Good grade by renaming it."

That clever marketing move occurred in the mid-1980s. The USDA changed the name of the Good grade to Select, which some consumers believe sounds like a higher grade than Choice.

Of course, the lower-fat beef also played into the wants of a nation poised for an era of low-fat food, even if didn't taste like it used to. Some nutritionists urged people to buy Select beef. Beef consumption dropped.

The Hereford brand

CAB isn't the only name in the breed brand-name business. Hereford ranchers promote their brand name, too. Certified Hereford Beef stresses the lower fat content of the meat, and a study by Colorado State University in the 1980s showed that the Hereford's leaner meat was just as tender despite less marbling.

"CAB will outmarble everything else," Ritchie says. "There are two things you get from marbling -- flavor and juiciness. The more fat it's got, the more taste. But marbling doesn't account for much tenderness, despite what CAB will tell you."

Brands associated with breeds are only one type, says Scott Wright, Beef Quality Assurance director for the Pennsylvania Beef Council funded by the National Beef Board.

Wright is developing Pennsylvania Quality Assurance beef, kind of a state brand for cattle. This beef would be raised by certified producers under guidelines for meat safety, following proper feeding and handling procedures for the animals.

"There's been a lot of talk about Country of Origin Labeling," Wright says. "These would be a Pennsylvania beef label certified on the basis of how the cattle are raised. We think consumers want to know more about how and where their meat comes from."

Some beef may be a combination of brands. Wright cites the beef from the Masonic Homes in Elizabethtown, near Lancaster, which uses the Pa. Quality label, as well as its own. That farm works in cooperation with McElhaney Stock Farm in Hookstown, Beaver County, where registered Shorthorns are grown and then fattened at Masonic Homes. In Pennsylvania, half the beef comes from dairy-type animals, and they can be part of the new quality-assurance program, too, Wright says.

Some brands are associated with particular farms or ranches. Local examples of these are Friendship Farms Beef in Lycippus, Westmoreland County; Mon Valley Farms in Morgantown, W.Va.; and Triple "B" Farm in Forward. National brands, such as Niman Ranch and Coleman Natural Beef, create a niche with beef that has received no hormone implants or antibiotics.

Pennsylvania's Wright provides an insight into why farmers might use a hormone implant and why beef might cost more if they don't.

"If you're not selling to a niche market, you'd be silly not to do it because of the gain you get," Wright says. "For maybe a couple bucks [for the hormone implant], you get 25 to 50 extra pounds of gain, depending on the animal's genetics."

Beef advertised as "grass-fed" are typically leaner than beef raised on grain. "Natural," though a good marketing word, is rather a squishy term scientifically, because government regulators can't agree on what is "unnatural." So "all-natural" often turns out to be how the producer defines it. Good producers are happy to explain how they raise their beef.

As for Wright, "I usually buy my beef from a friend -- he gives me a good price. Sometimes I buy CAB steaks at the supermarket."

Tastes differ

What is a good steak anyway?

It is not a cliche to say that depends on personal taste. Some people say they prefer grass-fed animals because they tend to be leaner with what some describe as a "cleaner" taste. Another group swears by organically grown beef.

For now, these niche markets claim higher prices than conventionally grown beef, which may eat grass but are finished on grain for more marbling.

In the end, no consumer can be absolutely sure she'll invest in a perfect steak every time. In Pennsylvania, a dairy-type steer raised for beef could be graded Choice if properly fed, though its muscles don't have quite the same shape as Hereford or Angus types.

"A Holstein can go Choice, because there's a lot of marbling in them," Ritchie explains. "The problem is, they're lighter muscled, and the rib-eye is smaller and flatter and not quite as attractive, with a stranger shape to the muscle. They will marble with an Angus, though."

Ritchie is clearly in the more marbling/more taste camp, yet even a pro like him, who has taken livestock judging teams all over the country, says picking a good steak is "dicey."

"Visually you can't look at a steak and tell if it's going to eat good," he says, using the cattleman's term. "Absolutely not. It's probably going to eat better, with more marbling, because of juiciness and flavor. Marbling is protection from overcooking. Select steaks that are leaner can be just as tender, but you can't be assured of that.

"You can go to upscale steak houses like Morton's and Ruth's Chris and you're going to then get a real good steak, but you're going to pay a hell of a lot for it."

First Published: June 24, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

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