European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                American Sig Clos prime and Choice Gallop off into the Sunset new York times Charles Waller if you get prime beef now its an Accident another casualty of the economic realities of the eath i Pun to Frame by William Stevens new York times i try to make them Ken Stevens said in and they were Row upon Row of 12dayaged top rib eyes and por blooded and their surety White edges trimmed just with flecks and veins of marbled fat guaranteeing the locked in flavor that is one of the most famous of american it made the Mouth water just to a Century in the Early years of the cattle no such sight could have Steak was merely a by product of the Rangy longhorn steer whose hide was what made it even after cattlemen Learned to Force feed steers to pro Duce the Topo theline cuts that now Bear the government imprints of prime and a Good Steak remained a but in the 1960s and Early it whether eaten in the dining the restaurant or the Back Steak joined the split level suburban House and the trocar garage As both a fixture and a Symbol of the mass Middle class Good now the gilded age of the great american Steak appears to be if not like the big car and the single family detached it is becoming a victim not Only of changing More of the new age of it is a casualty of the United states painful adjustment to the eco nomic realities of the to put it a Good Steak at least As such steaks have been defined up until now May soon be a thing of the past for All but the most if you get prime beef now its an says Ken who spent nearly 30 years grading such beef before retiring As a government inspector and opening his own retail meat Market in Amarillo in the nations beef where 70 percent of the country beef cattle Are butchered and sent to for All their not one of the steaks in meat lands showcases was a prime All were Choice not the but still very High even that much is if the men in these parts who make the crucial eco nomic decisions on beef production Are the Choice Steak is on the Way before if All the signs Are to be what used to be considered middling cuts of beef will replace Choice As the everyday offering at supermarket meat counters from coast to in there is a move afoot already to get the govern ment to redefine Choice to include less marbled meat than it now this Doest necessarily represent any downgrading of the say those who support the they it merely reflects a shift in Consumers ideas about what constitutes Quality fat is lean is you can still get a prime of every big City has its prime steakhouses and Many Fine butchers carry but the going rate in restaurants is and a la for All but the very Selloff and the expense account the Best Steak has become a special Occa Sion treat once and its not people increasingly cant afford frontline its that such steaks Are simply going to be less and possibly not at All except in what might be called elitist that already happening with its hard to come says Bill manager of the meat depart ment at the gourmet Market in Houston that serves the wealthy of River i have a standing sometimes have orders to try to find More prime the explanation for it All lies in the nature and economics of the beef until the most important measure of Quality in beef has been the amount of marbling it marbling is what provides the Fla it also makes a prime or Choice Steak a forgiving food you can make mistakes cooking and the marbling will still guarantee Good not so with lesser which require More care and and longer Cook ing marbling is produced in Only one Way feeding the steer on usually until it reaches a certain optimum beef experts say that the Breed of the steer has no bearing on the nature and Quality of the Steak but that feeding and climate a whole Industry has grown up around cattle it used to be concentrated in the Middle Western Corn for the nations 1 producer of beef used to ship steers to Middle Western feed in the last 15 the Center of Gravity has shifted to an area comprising parts of new Kansas and Nebras meat packers have with the result that areas like the Texas where Amarillo is Situ Are dotted with both feed lots and this Region buys live cattle from All Over the West and ships fresh beef All Over the a key person in the from the standpoint of determining what kinds of steaks get is Page 12 the stars and stripes i Are Consumers no longer As interested in prime and Choice beef As they used to be v february a the entrepreneur who puts up the risk capital Nec Essary to buy cattle from ranchers and feed them to a certain Amarillo is full of such entre pre the optimum weight for producing Choice beef is considered to be to to achieve this a steer lives in an enclosed out on the treeless for about 150 eating most of the marbling in a Choice Steak takes place during the last two or three Days of and after that further gains come to produce prime with More might require a weight of achieved by some 30 Days of additional obviously Grain is and Grain prices have sky not Only so have interest rates and the entrepreneurs must borrow Money to finance both the Purchase of cattle and their the result of say men like Charles who Heads the Amarillo based Texas cattle feeders is to push up costs to a Point where the entrepreneurs Are frequently losing Mon that last 30 Days necessary to produce a prime Steak present a particular says the Cost of that time makes a prime steer so expensive that the Market will not we dont fool with save if a prime steer is it is by Accident of Bovine me some Middle Western feed lots continue to specialize in prime steers for the restaurant Howe for most cattle Ball and others such a Point of diminishing returns is approaching with Choice beef As and May already be the say the beef is that despite retail beef prices that seem High to the the returns to the beef entrepreneurs Are not Ball says he is somewhat puzzled by but suspects it is simply because people wont buy beef unless its Price is competitive with that of the traditionally less expensive Chicken and As the Point of diminishing returns is reached with Choice several results Are it May be that Many entrepreneurs and cattle raisers will simply get out of the further reducing beef production fell from an Al time High of million pounds in 1976 to million in last Summers severe drought in the Middle West and Southwest is expected to cause still further though precisely How much is not yet or it May be that cattle will still be but for a Shorter time so that expenses May be reduced and profits the steers leaving the feedlots would in that Case be considerably smaller 700 per naps and when government inspectors in the packing houses peered at the exposed rib Eye Steak Between the 12th and 13th rib of each steer the Standard inspection Point they would find less than enough marbling to rate the two purple Stamps that signify let alone the three that signify some cattle owners reportedly Are already scaling Back on the size of Slaughter and there is every indication that the trend will not Only but one important indication is that Consumers apparently Are no longer As interested in prime and Choice beef As they used to it is not news that Many worried about the health implications of fat and Choles have switched increasingly from beef to pork and fish in the last few per capita beef in dropped from pounds in 1976 to pounds last by com it stood at pounds in 1960 and in it is that consumer surveys Are discovering that Consumers will not Only accept sub Choice grades of but they also May prefer in one such recent the Safeway supermarket one of the wests placed steaks rated Good one category below Choice on meat counters in customers of commissaries in Europe will have no trouble adjusting to leaner the beef sold in the european military stores is c equivalent to the department of agriculture Good Grade one step Down from according to a representative of the meat buying division at the defense subsistence Region Europe in Only occasionally does beef purchased in Ireland or England come up to the More marbled Choice he explained that the european animals Are generally Here most of the beef comes from Dairy rather than meat he you get More be for your Money when it comes to leaner he san los Sacramento and grades below Choice display no government Safeway called its Good beef Safeway custom ers bought it As enthusiastically As they bought these results seem to confirm other studies suggesting that people want leaner says Frank vice president in charge of meat marketing for so says we do not have a lot of that leaner meat economic pressures on the beef producers would seem to be coinciding with consumer demand in such a Way As to make it available the cattle Are willing to produce any kind of animal the consumer says Charles and that apparently is something Between the stringy longhorn of 1880 the beautifully devel oped steer of steaks glory 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