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Coming to a County Near You! Beef Quality Assurance Training
July, 2019
Laura H. Bennett, UF/IFAS Extension
Pasco, Sumter & Hernando Counties, Dade City
This past Spring, twenty-five Livestock Extension Agents from around Florida attended training so that agents could facilitate these trainings in their own counties. This can translate into more opportunities for adults and students to become BQA Certified in a “live” setting.
This topic of Beef Quality Assurance is more
important than ever. As our
world becomes more concerned with
where and
how we produce food (beef in
our case), we must be more vigilant than ever to make every effort to be
good stewards. Everyone that
raises cattle (youth included) takes a role in producing beef that will feed
people. Our management of
cattle directly influences the food safety and quality of the beef that is
produced. No matter the size of
your operation, EVERY beef animal needs to be raised in such a way that will
give Assurance to the public about the Quality of the Beef.
(Notice how the words are re-ordered for emphasis).
Ultimately, all of the concepts covered in BQA training equip us to be better stewards and managers of cattle. Correct injection site location, needle selection, vaccination handling, record keeping; the list goes on. Think about this…if our vaccines are not handled correctly and are ineffective, that just sets up for sickness later. That means antibiotics are called in which we would like to avoid. Simple decisions and management can have big consequences later.
Proper injection site locations
Youth (4-H and FFA) who raise livestock should be
especially involved in BQA. It
is becoming more and more difficult to find buyers for market steer
projects. What if a student (or
every student in an entire County Fair Association) could advertise that
they have been BQA certified and explain what that means?
It could be a great marketing tool, not to mention experience, for
the students!
So, here is the challenge. Call your Extension Office and request the training. It is likely that you could learn something that may help you in your operation. Another challenge would be to share the information with others. Your knowledge of BQA and best management practices can be shared with the general public, as well. Any size beef producer, whether adult or youth, can make big impacts on how people collectively perceive the beef industry. People really do want to know what we do.
Recently, I had the opportunity to share about some
practices in raising beef cattle to a small group learning about food and
nutrition; these were not people raising cattle.
I tackled antibiotics and growth hormones.
I told them the why, the how, and the benefits as well as all of the
oversight provided by FDA, USDA-FSIS, the Veterinary Feed Directive, FDACS
and traceability. At the end, I
was pleasantly surprised at the reaction.
They all indicated they felt their perception of how our beef is
produced had been improved and was “more favorable.”
Get BQA certified and be more confident to talk about the
where, the
how, and the
why of raising beef cattle
and raise a safe, quality product in the process!
If you have any questions about this article, please contact Laura Bennett at laurahbennett@ufl.edu .