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Beef Quality Assurance Certification Successful
Livestock Update, May 2003
John B. Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef, VA Tech
Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) producer certification met with a tremendous positive response form beef producers and extension agents. Almost 1000 Virginia beef producers have been trained as BQA certified beef producers. These producers have promised to follow BQA guidelines for cattle production on their farms. In addition, they agreed to keep records of health practices for their herds.
By becoming BQA certified these producers have a verifiable commitment to producing a safe high quality source of protein for the consumer. Their participation in the 4 hour training demonstrates their understanding of the feeder cattle producers' role in quality beef production. Becoming BQA certified should allow Virginia producers greater or continued access to a large number of markets.
After numerous training sessions this spring, the BQA team will be taking a break from conducting certification meetings. Producer BQA certification will resume later this summer and fall. The trainings will be held on a regional or multi-county basis. Therefore, producers that want to be BQA certified may need to travel outside their local area to receive training.
For more information on BQA producer certification contact your local Extension office or John B. Hall at jbhall@vt.edu