Members of the OCA Cattlemen's Leadership Academy attended the Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit earlier this week. The Beef Quality Summit is hosted by the Food and Agricultural Products Center at Oklahoma State University, coordinated by the Oklahoma Beef Council and is funded with beef check-off dollars.
"As a cattle producer, this event is an excellent, hands-on opportunity for me to learn how practices on my ranch can directly influence the end product," said Rowdy Fewel, CLA participant from Checotah, Okla.
In addition to CLA members, individuals representing several segments of the beef industry also participated in the Summit. Ranchers, feedlot operators, order buyers, pharmaceutical salesmen, packers, processors and beef sales and marketing people all took part in this Beef Check-off funded event.
The first BQS at OSU was in 1999. The purpose of the BQS program is to highlight the complexity of the beef industry. The beef industry is very segmented, with sectors ranging from cow/calf producers all the way to culinary professionals, and really the final consumer. BQS also provides a venue whereby individuals from these various sectors can meet and talk about what they do and learn how their operations impact other individuals down-stream. Another purpose of the BQS program is to re-emphasize all the criteria identified in the Beef Quality Assurance Program, and to teach the attendees why these criteria are important to the industry. These three goals are accomplished through a lot of hands-on work.
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