Beef Quality in Texas
Beef Quality Assurance – What It’s Not

With so many buzzwords flying around the beef industry these days, it’s easy to get some of the ideas behind them confused. One example is the sometimes gray area of difference between Beef Quality Assurance and preconditioning. While the two ideas can generate synergy when used in tandem, they are not one in the same.

Beef Quality Assurance, at its most basic level, is simply a training process to make producers aware of certain ranch-level management practices that have been proven to negatively impact the final product in terms of food safety and/or quality.

For example, allowing animals to enter the marketing chain that have buckshot in their hindquarters, for whatever reason (hunting, shotgun gathering, etc.), would violate BQA recommendations – not to mention FDA requirements on lead and adulteration of product.

However, you’re not likely to find an "avoid the presence of buckshot" requirement in most preconditioning programs. Preconditioning is simply a process that producers utilize to prepare calves to leave the ranch and stay healthy for the next person to own them.

In general, a producer that preconditions his calves will follow a recommended vaccination schedule (what and when), wean the calves for about 45 days and teach them how to eat from a feed bunk and find the water trough. An example of a recommended vaccination schedule would be Texas A&M’s well-known VAC-45 program.

According to Dr. John McNeill, associate department head and Extension program leader in animal science, VAC-45 is "a vaccination program that standardizes the types of vaccines used, the timing of their administration and the minimum number of days weaned prior to shipment to enhance immunity and beef production efficiency."

So, while there is some overlap between the two ideas, and even a benefit of doing both at the same time, it’s not correct to assume that a producer who is operating according to BQA recommendations is automatically preconditioning her cattle.

Likewise, you can’t just assume that a producer who is utilizing a recommended vaccination schedule (what and when) is necessarily using the best technique (how) in administering those shots. It may well be that the owner or ranch manager understands all about how to prevent injection site problems, or why it’s important not to clean syringes used to give a modified live vaccine with a disinfectant.

But if the good folks who work for him haven’t been informed as to why they might as well squirt that vaccine at their overanxious blue heeler if they leave the bottle on the sunny dashboard of their truck… all bets are off on the success of the ranch’s preconditioning program.

Dr. Todd Thrift, Extension livestock specialist, explains another way that preconditioning and BQA programs can work together is that "if calves stay healthier, then we treat fewer in the feedyard with less potential of injection site problems and residues."

These are just a few of the topics that are covered in Beef Quality Assurance. Other issues that BQA producers study include the management and marketing of cull cows and bulls, preventing accidental contamination of feedstuffs, preventing chemical residue problems and much more.

At a higher level, some state BQA programs are helping producers document best management practices they’ve used on a particular set of cattle so that the producer can then offer verifiable assurance to buyers that his cattle will stay healthy and ultimately produce a safe and wholesome beef product.

And, the market is finally offering producers financial incentive to do so. Moreover, go to just about any gathering of beef producers and you’ll hear the guest speaker explaining why process verification, or in other words, the idea of "say what you do and do what you say," will probably be your admission ticket to tomorrow’s marketplace.

The goal of the Texas Beef Quality Producer program is to offer both the training and documentation components of a full-service BQA program. Interested producers can start making their commitment to Beef Quality Assurance by attending one of the 13 initial meetings scheduled for 2001.

BQA Tip of the Month:

Take precautions around feeding and storage areas to prevent leakage of transmission and transformer fluid, which contain PCBs (polychlorinated hydrocarbons). These fluids pose a potential problem with violative residues. While the occurrence of PCB contamination is small, there is potential, for example, for a leaky transmission or radiator to contaminate hay or other stored feed.