10 BULLETIN 1246, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Although freezing in no way affects the grade, so far as the aver- 
age consumer in the United States is concerned, it vitally affects the 
meat's desirability. Most American consumers have a decided 
prejudice against frozen meat and will accept it only in times of 
scarcity or at substantial price discounts as compared with fresh 
chilled meat. 
It is estimated that approximately 97 per cent of the fresh beef 
sold in the United States is " fresh chilled," whereas the bulk of the 
fresh beef exported is frozen. The growth of export trade in 
chilled beef, however, has been very marked during the past 10 
years, and the number of ships equipped with refrigeration for 
carrying chilled beef has increased correspondingly. 
BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION. 
In the system of classification presented in this bulletin, class is 
determined by the sex condition of the animal from which the beef 
was derived. Although that is true, the real significance of sex 
condition consists in the fact that it implies uniform variations in 
degree of one or more of the three fundamental characteristics — 
quality, conformation, and finish. 
For example, steer beef is, on the whole, uniformly superior in 
conformation to cow beef. Bull beef as a class is uniformly inferior 
in quality to steer or heifer beef. Hence, a given carcass is placed 
in the steer-beef class primarily because the animal which produced 
it was a steer, but the act of so placing the carcass derives its chief 
justification from the fact that steers, as a class, represent a certain 
uniform combination of quality, conformation, and finish. 
In a given class, quality, conformation, and finish appear in a 
fairly definite ratio, and this ratio shows only slight variations 
within the class. Each class has its own ratio which distinguishes 
it from every other class. These distinctive ratios are due to sex 
condition. 
All beef, then, is divided into five classes — steer, heifer, cow. bull, 
and stag. 
Perhaps variation in conformation constitutes the greatest dif- 
ference between classes, but between certain classes the difference in 
quality is very great. In the following definitions an effort has 
been made to point out the important differences between classes and 
to indicate the degree of variation in fundamental characteristics. 
These definitions consist largely in describing the physical charac- 
teristics of each class, which amounts in most cases to comparing 
one class with other classes in respect to the degree of quality, con- 
formation, and finish. In all such comparisons it is understood that 
i he things compared are of the same grade. For example, steer beef 
as ;i rlnss possesses better finish than cow beef, but the statement 
would not hold if Common steer beef were compared with Choice 
cow beef. 
STANDARD CLASSES OF BEEF. 
A.S one of the first problems confronting the beef grader is to 
determine the sex of the animal which produced the meat, the more 
important characteristics which are peculiar to each sex, and which 
