The industry is celebrating 25 years of commitment to checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) programs by releasing a highlight video. Original advisory board members such as Ran Smith, Dr. Gary Cowman, Dr. Dee Griffin and others take viewers on a historical walk though the creation of the BQA program.
Ensuring beef safety and quality — producers do it on their farm or ranch every day. It’s also at the heart of the BQA program, designed to return more profits to producers and deliver safe, healthy, humanely raised beef to consumers.
“Today’s consumers trust that America’s beef producers are good people but they don’t understand all of our production practices,” explains veterinarian Dee Griffin, a professor at the University of Nebraska’s Great Plains Veterinary Education Center and a BQA pioneer. “That’s where – for more than 25 years now – BQA has been helping.”
BQA is a voluntary, national program implemented through state beef organizations to provide standards and practices for high-quality cattle production. These science-based protocols are coupled with day-to-day, common-sense husbandry practices. BQA raises consumer confidence by demonstrating a commitment to quality in every segment of the beef industry — not just at the feedlot or packing plant.
Watch the history unfold on this video at www.bqa.org or on the National BQA YouTube channel.
For more about your checkoff investment, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
Source: Beef Checkoff Program