Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays spoke with Barry Whitworth, DVM, Senior Extension Specialist, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service and currently the statewide coordinator for the Beef Quality Assurance Program (BQA) about the BQA program.
The BQA Program began in the eighties to eliminate chemical and drug residue, and later turned its focus to injection site lesions. Currently, its view broadly covers a variety of possible quality control issues in beef.
“Certification is a three-year deal, and now, there are continuing education courses you can take to get recertified. I think they are trying to make it easier for producers to get their certification,” Dr. Whitworth said.
In response to people who have already been certified wondering if they should get recertified, Dr. Whitworth said, “Things change over time, so it is important to constantly be updated on the different aspects as far as production of beef goes. Looking at beef quality audits, go back and look at the original one and the most recent one that came out in 2016. Emphasis on different things change over time. We don’t have injection site lesion problems the way we did when we initially started. Now, there are other quality issues that we are focusing on so it does change over time.”
He went on to explain that training sessions cover several different topics as far as quality is concerned from handling, cattle behavior, herd health, record keeping, biosecurity, and a variety of other topics.
“Personally, as a veterinarian, I am biased, and I think the health and biosecurity are really important,” Dr. Whitworth remarked. “We are all hearing about high path avian influenza and we’ve seen that it has gotten into the dairy cattle so biosecurity is going to become more and more important as we go along.”
Dr. Whitworth observed that consumers are becoming more and more concerned with how their food is raised and quality issues within that scope. Even as he noted that cattle producers have been raising cattle in line with BQA standards long before becoming certified, he still encourages certification so that producers can show their record of good practices.
“A lot of the VAC-45 programs are now requiring that you are BQA certified, and a study was done to show that there is a premium for BQA Certified cattle. There is an incentive here beyond just doing the right thing, but there could be some financial benefit to it, too,” he said.
Producers can get more information and obtain online training at bqa.org, by emailing Dr. Whitworth here or by visiting their county extension office and speaking to the ag educator.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
