MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF LIVESTOCK 3 
freely through commerce and with a minimum of loss, trade lan- 
guage must be standardized. Buyers and sellers must use the same 
terms and attach the same meaning to those terms if best results 
are to be obtained. 
Although, almost from the beginning of centralized livestock 
marketing, market papers, and members of the trade used certain 
terms to designate the various groups into which meat animals were 
sorted for purposes of trade, there was no serious effort, so far as is 
known, to organize, harmonize, and define these terms in such a way 
as to make them nationally applicable and generally recognized and 
understood until early in the present century when the task was 
undertaken by the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois under the leadership of Prof. Herbert W. Mumford, 
assisted by Prof. Louis D. Hall and others. The results of investi- 
gations made by these men were published in a series of bulletins 
dealing with both livestock and dressed meats. 
Just as the schedules of market classes and grades used by Pro- 
fessor Mumford and his associates were based on those already in 
use by the trade, so the schedule appearing in this bulletin makes 
free use of those set forth by Professor Mumford but with material 
elaboration and modification to care for the refinements of present- 
day livestock marketing. : 
This bulletin constitutes an effort to formulate, set down in logical 
order, and define a set of class and grade terms for livestock which 
can be used on any livestock market and the meaning of which can 
be easily understood by anyone interested in the matter. 
It is hoped that the schedule of market classes and grades and the 
definitions of terms which follow will fit trade requirements so 
closely that they may eventually be generally accepted as standards. 
DEFINITION OF CLASSIFYING AND GRADING 
Classifying and grading constitute a process whereby animals are 
divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller groups, each divi- 
sion being based on some more or less fundamental principle or con- 
sideration. As the groups increase in number they decrease in size 
and the individual units which form a given group show constantly 
increased similarity in all essential respects. 
The term “classification” is frequently applied in a broad sense 
to the general process of dividing meat animals into classes, sub- 
classes, and the various use, age, and weight selections as well as 
grades. Strictly speaking, however, classifying is limited to divid- 
ing animals into the major subdivisions known as classes. Grading, 
on the other hand, as conducted on livestock markets constitutes 
the last process of sorting and results in much smaller but much 
more uniform groups than classes. 
Ultimately and actually, however, grading consists in determining 
the degree of excellence of individual animals. The grade of a pen 
or load of livestock is simply an average of the grades of the indi- 
viduals which make up the lot. 
PURPOSE OF CLASSIFYING AND GRADING 
As offered at public stockyards, live meat animals represent a 
wide range in degree of all essential characteristics. Some possess 
