Show agriculture dap to reinstate land grading the department of agrical ture dealt lamb producers a blow friday as it decided to reinstate federal lamb grad ing the decision by Secret secretary gry ezra taft benson contained a few rays of hope tor for producers however secretary denson said that he will initiate revised grad g ad ing itan standards dards ef eff fictive active march 1 which will allow leaner lamb to get labels of prime and choice the fact that only lamb with high fat conte content t go got t quality grading was one of the main criticisms leveled at the grading by producers to continue study the secretary also ampha sized that the department in tended to continue its study of the lamb market price structure and pricing es em producers had contended that the basic problem rial ed by grading was one of market control by distri distribute but or ors particularly chain stores 1 I am confident secre mccre tary denson benson said that the reappraisal of the lamb grad ing service will result in im prove ments that will be of benefit to producers process ors and consumers alike the new grading standards will make it possible for 60 00 per cent of all lamb to be la belled choice and 20 per cent to be marked prime the old standards called for only 20 per cent in the choice grade and 1 i per cent in the prime category no R education period introduction of the new standards will necessitate a 8 period of education reeducation re for led fed oral eral graders this necessity accounts for the time lag between the department a deci slon glon and its implementation on march I 1 grading has been suspended since jan 4 federal grading has been opposed by lamb producers producer s and by large meat packing concerns A utahn representing the producers J R broadbent of salt lake city served on the agriculture D departments part ments technical committee on lamb grades which has been considering the problem lem mr broadbent who is chairman ot of the iamb committee of the american sheep producers council and pres president of the utah wool growers said here last week that we cant live with a grading hamell opposed sen wallace F bennett 11 utah also has voiced tion to federal grading but was unavailable for comment on the departments department s decision lamb buyers distributors and consumers led the fight for a revised system of grad ing and were joined by the four major farm eions doth both the house Ari agriculture culture committee and uie lao agrical ture tu re department itself have held hearings on the grading problem in the last three weeks |