To the majority of U.S. citizens a Government Meat Grader job title is wrongly assumed to be synonymous with that of a Federal Meat Inspector. The FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service), where Federal Meat Inspectors work, has about 9,600 employees spread throughout the Country. While Federal Red Meat Graders number only around 160. There also exist about 740 State/Federal Poultry/Egg Graders within the Quality Assurance Division of the AMS (Agricultural Marketing Service); working along with the Red Meat Graders. APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) where FSIS is located and the AMS where the QAD is, are two of 12 major USDA service sectors. In total the USDA employs about 100,000 people; with the Natural Resources Conservation Service being the largest employer.
Couple the fact that most Red Meat Graders are located at Duty Stations in more remote regions of the U.S., where most big beef harvest plants are, with low Nationwide Meat Grader numbers, and it is small wonder that the Federal Red Meat Grader job title is little known of outside of big meat plants. By Government edict the further processing of USDA donated red meat (primarily pork, lamb and beef) requires Meat Grader certification as a condition of being awarded such contracts. The Agency was once termed the “Meat Grading & Certification Branch” before merging with Poultry. Further processing meat plants are commonly located in somewhat more densely populated regions of the U.S., but are serviced by a very low percentage of Red Meat Graders. Graders working at further processing Duty Stations are normally required to take turns going TDY (temporary duty), up to two weeks each time, in order to cover more remote location beef carcass grading plant vacancies, annual leave or sick leave. Certification Meat Graders are often “out of their element” on big beef plant TDYs. It does not pose a problem because if taggers (plant grading personnel) disagree with grading calls they can rail-out affected carcasses out until local working Meat Graders are on duty to revaluate them. And, if visiting Meat Graders can be successfully intimidated, the plant can sometimes get better grade calls than usual.
AMS Agricultural Commodity Grader job opportunities are sometimes covered during 4H, FFA or in High School Vocational Agricultural Education classes, during University Agricultural College courses, and over the years I have had quite a few meat plant employees inquire about becoming a Meat Grader; after they observed the job. Agricultural Educational courses, meat plant employment exposure and perusing Government job offerings online seem to be the most common ways of becoming aware that Meat Grader jobs exist. Of the 100 or so plant employees that asked me about a Meat Grading job over the years, I don’t know of any of them that ever landed one. I mainly worked in bigger-town further processing plants; where plenty of people wanted to live & work. However, in high-volume remote location beef harvest plants hiring Meat Graders out of the meat industry is fairly commonplace, due to a lack of interested applicants.
One common consideration affects all potential Federal Government employment. The often stated policy is that ideally the demographics of the Federal Workforce should closely match the U.S. population as a whole. So, regardless of interests, education or past work experience, one’s sex, ethnicity, ect. can greatly affect their chances of getting hired. “Hot commodity” demographics can often get promoted and/or change Government Agencies comparatively quickly; creating more opportunity for like individuals. Motherhood, for one, seems to increase employee turnover among female Meat Graders. Therefore, higher than average attrition in certain demographics can increase new job opportunities in the same.
A good many young people grew up with some exposure to and/or interest in farming. But, very few grow up with exposure to meat plants. A production Agriculture background or interest brings us to the most common source of Red Meat Grader recruits. As was the case with me, a lack of enough financial resources to farm on a large enough scale to be profitable encourages some agriculture interested young people to seek other agricultural employment. However unlike me, most displaced “farm kids” that become Meat Graders do not possess any previous meat industry education or work experience at all. Lack of experience is not viewed as detrimental because such persons have no preconceived notions about how things should be done and tend to learn more quickly about how to “go along & get along.” If requirements to use Official USDA marketing labeling were to become non-profitable, meat companies would choose to not pay for Grading or Certification. Playing the normal role of a company-paid third-party auditor is important. Industry management understands that actual carcass grading calls must remain reasonably close to the standards in order to maintain continuity in that successful National marketing program. And, large retail chain store “Meat Buyers” know what the meat grades they purchase should look like. I have never heard of a new hire, much less an established Meat Grader, being fired for poor job performance. Everyone I knew has always ranked “Fully Successful” by their seldom seen Supervisor. Ag. background youth usually come into the Meat Grading service lean and ambitious; then over time become fat and complacent. Some of them get a better Government job, or at least “get outta Dodge” and relocate closer to a part of the Country where they prefer to live. Another job retention factor is that a lot of single or married with young children Meat Graders prefer to be stationed close fairly big towns. Night life and/or good schools are often important considerations for them.
The Military Veterans Preference is the next most common source of Meat Graders. Besides helping take care of those that defended America, it makes good sense to hire people accustomed to how the Government functions. Further, they are usually more mature (don’t make waves) than new college recruits and have proven track records of not being opposed to relocation or TDY. Those two factors help cut down on Grader attrition. The fact that some further processing meat plants pay for around-the-clock Grader coverage can become another cause of Meat Grader attrition. No Grader seniority benefits are currently in place; so some around-the-clock Duty Stations end up working swing shifts and lots of overtime.
Company “taggers” are the final category of persons that historically become Red Meat Graders. One might think that meat industry education and work experience would be a high consideration, but not being too familiar with plant employees is viewed as a good thing. Unfortunately, in some remote parts of the County the only people that want to stay near the big beef plants are the ones that are originally from the local region.
Admittedly, this short discussion about where Red Meat Graders come from is not all inclusive. I know of two former Meat Graders that took the job after failing to get into Veterinarian school and of a few cases of apparent nepotism. This post is solely intended to make more people aware of this job and to help them realistically evaluate their chances of getting hired.