Beef Quality Assurance— still clicking after all these years

BQA practices now saturate every phase of the beef industry.

Clint Peck

October 18, 2024

3 Min Read
Getty Images/ iStock

More than 30 years ago, the U.S. beef industry got a wake-up call. The 1991 National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) sounded the alarm.

Through the late 1970s and into the ‘80s ranchers, cattle feeders, processors, and retailers were sensing a demand problem—that beef was steadily losing ground to competitive meats and poultry. But they couldn’t put their finger on the cause.

The NBQA provided an answer. Deficiencies in beef carcass quality and lack of end-product consistency flowed throughout the supply chain. And the checkoff-funded audit ended in dollar signs. Carcass non-conformities and defects pulled $279.00 from every steer/heifer slaughtered in the U.S. during 1991.

Carcasses ranging from 400-1100 lbs. routinely hung from packing plant rails, confounding packing plant managers. And there was either too much fat or too little fat. Meat cutters fumed over injection-site lesions, bruises and even buckshot that riddled high-value primal cuts.

Getting paid for it

The message was clear: producers needed to pay more attention to details previously never considered, said Lisa Pederson, who ranches with her family near Firesteel, S.D.  Pederson is the BQA specialist across the border in North Dakota.

“We needed to make changes up and down the supply chain, and we needed to make them fast,” noted Pederson. “But it was tough to promote BQA because producers weren’t all that willing to make changes they weren’t going to get paid for.”

Today BQA practices saturate every phase of the beef industry, added Pederson. “You might not actually realize it when you get your check—but it’s there in increased value and increased demand.”

Early on, Jeff Windett, Columbia, Mo., could see the value in implementing BQA practices. The 2005 Missouri Cattleman of the Year points to research conducted by Colorado State University which show a premium of $16.80/head for feeder cattle that had BQA listed in the lot description.

New producers, new challenges

Today, approximately 85% of U.S. beef comes from BQA-certified producers. But BQA programming needs to continue morphing with the industry, said Jerry Yates, manager of Reymann Memorial Farms, Wardensville, W.V.

Yates gets a bit frustrated at times, because while most “old timers” have bought into BQA, new industry entrants are mostly unaware of the concept, or the need for it.

“These producers, many of them with small herds, don’t need to make a living from their cattle,” said Yates. “They come in with little motivation to raise animals that meet industry quality standards.”

Yet, these new entrants often eagerly embrace BQA standards once introduced to the idea.

“It’s human nature to want to do a good job in whatever you produce,” added Yates. “Most of these people want to do just that—raise quality beef like everyone else.”

Clint Peck is former senior editor of BEEF magazine. He was also an adjunct instructor with the Animal & Range Sciences Department at Montana State University and director of Beef Quality Assurance for the Montana Stockgrowers Association. After a decade-long “sabbatical” from the beef industry, Clint is excited to be back writing for farmers and ranchers across the country.

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