Types of Cattle Harvest Data

A profit-driven producer will rarely turn down the opportunity to receive harvest data on feedlot cattle. However, the columns and rows of numbers can be daunting to a producer who isn’t aware of the types of information available.

Data received on cattle can vary greatly in cost, detail and the questions it can answer. Of course, some data is better than nothing at all, but the type of data received makes a big difference in what you can get out of it.

There are four commonly used data formats available to producers: percentage (also known as “pen level”), group, tag transfer and detailed.

Percentage data (Table 1) costs little or nothing to receive and provides percentage distributions for hot carcass weight (HCW), Yield Grade, Quality Grade, backfat thickness and ribeye area (REA).

However, percentage data offers little to the data-minded producer looking for carcass merit and value variation within a cowherd. Percentage data also fails to create a relationship between quality and YG among individuals because it is based on the group. In this format, the producer has no way of knowing whether the 2 Prime cattle were YG 1 or YG 4.

Table 1. Example of percentage carcass data

Hot carcass weight	Less than 600 lbs.	600-750 lbs.	750-900 lbs.	900-950 lbs.	Over 950 lbs.
Number	0	10	31	8	1
%	0	20	62	16	2
Yield Grade	YG1	YG2	YG3	YG4	YG5
Number	4	20	19	6	1
%	8	40	38	12	2
USDA Quality Grade	Prime	Upper 2/3 Choice	Low Choice	Select	Off grades
Number	2	16	25	7	0
%	4	32	50	14	0
Fat Thickness	Less than 0.2”	0.2” to 0.4”	0.4” to 0.6”	0.6” to 0.8”	Over 0.8”
Number	0	9	18	21	2
%	0	18	36	42	4
Ribeye Area	Less than 11”	11” to 13”	13” to 15”	15” to 17”	Over 17”
Number	0	18	22	10	0
%	0	36	44	20	0

Given the limitations of percentage data and the fact that some linking data can be captured with little or no additional effort or cost, group data should be the minimum level of carcass data you pursue.

If you’re not the kind to stop at the minimum, if you really want to unlock the vault of knowledge, capture at least tag-transfer or even detailed carcass data for $2 to $5/head. That greatly increases your ability to isolate and address carcass-merit strengths and weaknesses in your herd by tracking each carcass back to specific parents. Group data does not provide that opportunity.

There may be slight differences among data providers, but Table 2 identifies the various data points you should expect on each head shipped to the packer for each particular type of data.

Table 2. Example of the different types of carcass data available and the parameters included.

Detailed Carcass Data
Tag Transfer Carcass Data
	Group Carcass Data
Ear Tag #	HCW	Quality Grade	Yield Grade	CAB Certified	$/cwt.	Total Value	Marbling Score	Backfat	REA	Req. REA	% KPH
Y534	800	Choice	2	Yes	$117	$936	Modest50	.30	13.5	13.4	2.0

Individually sorted data sets like Table 2 open up a wide variety of opportunities to see what kind of information can be mined from the numbers. To better understand how to process detailed data go to Putting Data to Work.