We have determined that the tenderness of beef longissimus measured directly by shear force at 1 day postmortem is strongly related to tenderness of longissimus muscle at 14 days postmortem . Over the course of the last several years, we have collected day-1 shear values on 400 steer carcasses. Analysis of these data indicated that we can accurately segregate cattle into expected aged longissimus muscle tenderness groups. The success rate of this procedure was 85% which was much higher than the present quality grading system . This procedure allows for the creation of a tenderness grade which contains 100% tender beef. In contrast, 20% of upper Choice carcasses are relatively tough.