Beef Quality Assurance Certification Training

The Minnesota Beef Council, along with private sponsors, will be hosting a number of Beef Quality Assurance certification seminars in our area early this week. It is free to all dairy and beef producers. Beef Quality Assurance demonstrates commitment to food safety and quality, safeguards the public image of the industry, upholds consumer confidence in beef products, and enhances herd profitability through better management. In a more practical sense, producers are instructed on proper cattle handling techniques, use of animal health products and injection sites, feedyard management, biosecurity, shipping cattle protocol and so on. I should point out that dairy producers are also beef producers as dairy animals eventually are sold as beef animals.

Beef and dairy producers are not yet required to be Beef Quality Assurance certified to sell their animals to processors. However, very soon cattle processors likely will require it. That has already occurred in the pork industry as producers need to have been certified before processors will buy their hogs. There will be a Beef Quality Certification program Monday, February 15, at the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus in the Animal Science Arena starting at 4PM. Then on Tuesday the same program will be held in Cannon Falls starting at 2:30PM at Haas Livestock. Finally the program will be held at the Central Livestock Zumbrota market on Wednesday beginning at 9:30AM.