April 7, 2000

Imagine, if you will, Texas beef producers banding together in an effort to produce uniform, tender, palatable products with no residues, that had consumers coming back and begging for more. Imagine, too, that those cattle were identified with an electronic ear tag so that once an animal was fed and slaughtered, data could be sent back to individual producers so sound decisions could be made to improve future production. And, imagine that everyone in the production chain from the cow/calf man to the packer would receive added value for that better product. Sound too good to be true?

It’s happening in other states. And if the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) has their way, it will be available to Texas producers, too.

TSCRA members unanimously approved a proposal at their recent convention in Houston to develop and implement a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) training and certification program and an individual animal identification (ID) program.

"The goal of the program is to arm producers with the education needed to overcome management-influenced beef quality problems that affect overall demand for our product," said TSCRA President J. Mark Mc-Laughlin. "It is increasingly important for every beef cattle producer—no matter how small—to be dedicated to management practices which will produce the tender and consistent product demanded by today’s consumer."

Central to the proposed program’s success is the individual ID program.

"Testimonies are replete about the benefits on participating in such a program," McLaughlin said. "Imagine, simply enroll your cattle in that program and furnish a minimal amount of data on individual animals—birth dates, vaccination programs and weaning dates. And if this association can cause each other person in that chain of custody of that animal until the time of harvest to share their information with us and we can give it back to you, imagine what progress we can make in the quality of the beef that we produce!"

The TSCRA proposal, McLaughlin said, calls for the association to provide complete communication from the carcass back to the producer and from the producer forward to the people who buy the individual animals in the chain of custody.

"The technology is here," the TSCRA leader said. "It’s a marvelous opportunity to enhance the profitability of cattle of all our cattle operations. We can give the consumer a quality product every time if we just have the information with which to manage."

TSCRA staffer Sharla Ishmael, who has studied the program for the organization, said the BQA/ID program could arm producers with the education needed to overcome beef quality problems that are management influenced.

"You know, it’s the year 2000, and we’re still teaching producers how to castrate and how to tattoo," she said. "So there is very much a need for some basic animal husbandry training."

Such a program could also help producers capitalize on Texas’ natural advantage in feeder cattle numbers by facilitating the verification of health, nutrition and genetic specifications sought by auction markets, alliances and other marketing alternatives. Along with that, the ultimate goal of the program, she said, is to help individual producers capture and add value to their cattle.

"We’ve known for years that we’ve had these problems in beef quality," Ishmael said. "We’ve known for years how to correct these problems. What we haven’t had in Texas is a producer organization to take the lead and really adopt those principles, promote it, and get producers excited about adhering to Beef Quality Assurance."

In a nutshell, here’s how TSCRA says the program would work.

The first step would be BQA training. To participate in the ID program, producers would first need to be certified in Beef Quality Assurance. After attending a two-hour training session, producers would be required to pass a test on basic BQA knowledge.

Being trained in BQA prepares producers to participate in a cattle certification program. For example, TSCRA would certify that cattle have been managed and weaned according to standard specifications, such as minimum weaning date of 45 days prior to sale, required processing for castration, dehorning and administering vaccines.

The organization feels that certification of management practices by a third party gives the producer added credibility and value with potential buyers. Auction markets and other marketing outlets would be able to rely on the organization to handle the paperwork and monitoring, making it easier to conduct special sales for source and/or process-verified cattle.

Step two would be the individual ID program. Potential structure for that program would include uniquely identified individual tags for BQA-certified producers. Individual data would be sent back to TSCRA.

The cattle organization would work to build relationships with interested stockers, feeders and packers to get individual performance data back into the system from each segment up the production chain and share it with producers.

As TSCRA gathered that information from multiple sources, the data would be returned to the producer in a user-friendly format. TSCRA would also create a support network to help producers interpret the data.

The resolution passed at the convention directed that a task force of producers and staff develop a program that is "convenient, cost-effective, voluntary and protects the producer from undue liability."