02/03/05 Beef Quality Assurance

Transportation BQA The National Beef Quality Assurance program started 15 years ago and will expand again this year. I'm Jeff Keane and I'll explain right after this. The Beef Quality Assurance program (BQA) has had great success at the ranch and feedlot levels. The biggest accomplishment has been moving vaccination injection sites from the hip to the neck. This one procedure change has reduced the incidence of top round lesions from 23% to 2.3%. The program has also helped quality issues at the packinghouses also. Now BQA will expand to transportation through the Cattle Transportation Quality Assurance initiative funded by the Cattlemen's Beef Board. The program will include fact sheets and video training to help commercial transporters that have minimal prior experience in cattle hauling and producers using gooseneck trailers. Most suggestions are mostly commonsense issues that might have been overlooked as a factor in beef quality. Recommendations highlighting cattle behavior and low stress handling techniques include: moving slowly while starting, stopping, and going around corners; allowing for weather conditions, either hot or cold; minimizing overcrowding; identifying injured animals prior to shipping; and communication between producers and transporters. This sounds like a back to basic program to me since most of these recommendations are the same ones told to me by a rodeo stock contractor years ago. I'm Jeff Keane. Beef January 2005