The North Dakota Agriculture Department is expanding its six-year-old meat inspection program to include beef grading, a move one processor says could mean huge cost savings.

Beef falls into one of eight grades, including "prime" and "choice." North Dakota processors who choose to grade their cuts now must bring in a federal specialist from out of state. The per-hour charges and other costs can add up to thousands of dollars.

"We turned down customers at the plant because we didn't have a grading service," said Juanita Braun, who with her husband, Alvin, owns North Dakota Branded Beef Inc. "The closest graders would have had to come out of Denver or Texas."

North Dakota Branded Beef has a retail store in Bismarck and a processing plant in Harvey that caters to customers from several states. The plant is one of 17 state- or federally inspected slaughter facilities in North Dakota.

Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said one of the nine state inspectors - Cami Metzger of Langdon - is receiving eight weeks of training in Omaha, Neb. She then will be a certified grader through the U.S. Agriculture Department's Agricultural Marketing Service, which has a cooperative agreement with the state.

Johnson said meat processors who use Metzger's services still will have to pay the federal fee - a minimum of $61 per hour - but the costs for travel and lodging will be considerably less.

Beef grading is not mandatory, and most processors in the state do not do it, said Wayne Carlson, the Agriculture Department's program manager for livestock services. The grading service will help processors better market their beef, and help consumers who are looking for a specific grade of meat, he said.

Kevin Hartl, owner of Maple Valley Meats in Enderlin, said the grading service will be particularly helpful to plants that sell their meat wholesale.

"As far as small processors, your sales to your repeat customers, which is mostly what all of us small guys do - they pretty much put the trust in you picking the right animals for them," he said. "If you're selling to wholesale guys, they'll want to be guaranteed what they're getting.

"Every one of us in the state (inspection) program was glad to see (grading) come in," Hartl said. Earlier, he said, grading often was not worth the cost.

State lawmakers earlier this year approved salary and training money for the beef grading program. The Agriculture Department on Tuesday did not immediately have those figures available.

Carlson said one beef grader should be enough to meet demand for now, though the department expects an increase in the number of slaughter plants and production at existing plants.

"It's local markets, local demand for products," Carlson said. "People … want something that's produced locally."

The department now has nine full-time meat inspectors and is advertising for a tenth, Carlson said. Less than a year ago, it had only six.

The state meat inspection program was authorized by the 1999 Legislature and established in 2001. Plants may sell the meat only in North Dakota, unless they also are federally inspected.