By Rob Eirich, Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance, Nebraska Extension
By participating in the Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance (NBQA) program and completing a BQA Feed Yard Assessment, you are positioning your business to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead to ensure a safe, wholesome and quality beef and beef products for consumers. You are taking positive action to demonstrate that cattle producers are concerned about the product they produce as well as the live animals in their care. The NBQA program is a good resource for up-to-date best management practices and the BQA Feed Yard Assessment assist in reviewing daily implementation of these practices.
The BQA Assessment is a review of employee training, standard operating procedures (SOP), record keeping, animal health protocols, handling practices, and equipment/facility maintenance, plus a tool to identify areas of potential risk or opportunities for improvement. You can also use the assessment to set benchmarks and goals for the operation and your employees strive to maintain or reach, which set the standard for the industry to produce a quality product!
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) working with the major packers have developed a National BQA Feed Yard Assessment Database to assist beef packers in verifying their suppliers are current with BQA Certification and have completed a feed yard assessment once every three years. Feed yard can complete a BQA Feed Yard Assessment or a Third Party Audit equivalent containing BQA components to be listed. The only information being release to the National Database is Feed Yard Name, City, State and date of assessment/audit. The site is password protected and maintained by NCBA with list coming from State BQA Directors.
Nebraska BQA has developed their website as a resource for cattlemen. The resources include BQA Manuals, National Beef Quality Audit information, news articles and BQA Assessment information. All BQA Assessments, SOPs and forms can be downloaded at: http://bqa.unl.edu . For more information contact: Rob Eirich at reirich2@unl.edu or 308.632.1230.