By Terry Houser and Alaina Friesleben
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach offers two simple tools that help producers, educators and meat processors measure carcass traits in beef and pork. The products have recently been restocked and are now available on the ISU Extension Store.
The Beef Ribeye Grid and Pork Loin Eye Grid are used to estimate the size of ribeye and loin eye muscles on harvested animals. These measurements are commonly used in livestock judging contests, youth fair carcass evaluations and by producers who want carcass data to inform breeding decisions.
To use the grids, the transparent sheet is placed over the cut surface of the muscle and the dots within the ribeye or loin eye are counted. The total is then converted into square inches of muscle area.
Source : iastate.edu