Determining the optimum ribeye size for beef retail consumers.

摘要

Research was conducted in two phases to determine the optimum ribeye size for retail consumers. In phase I, 50 USDA Choice beef carcass sides were selected at a commercial packing plant into five different categories based on ribeye size. Steaks were tallied every four hours on weekdays and every two hours on weekend days and holidays to determine the number of monitoring periods required to sell each steak. When the number of steaks in the retail case fell below 15, a new group of 35 steaks was added and any steaks remaining from the group two prior to the current group were removed (pulled). In phase II, 15 USDA Choice ribeye rolls were selected from a commercial packing plant to represent two ribeye size categories, C (n = 5) and E (n = 10), and cut into 2.5-cm-thick steaks. Seventy-five people were recruited from the Brookings, SD, area to participate in the auctions to determine their willingness to pay for the three different types of ribeye steak. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)