By Jeff Burbrink
Ag & Natural Resources, Purdue Extension LaGrange County

LAGRANGE — Several years ago, the beef industry created a voluntary training and certification program called Beef Quality Assurance or BQA. In that program, producers of beef are taught industry standards for producing good quality beef, are tested, and are then issued a certificate of completion. The topics range from keeping feeds safe from contaminates, animal nutrition, to using drugs in a prescribed and safe manner, how to safely move cattle through barns and feedlots, using herbicides safely on pastures, and even worker safety.

The program was well received by the industry. There are over 1,000 BQA certified people in Indiana alone. Many of the large-scale buyers of beef adopted the BQA as their own and will not purchase beef from those without the BQA certificate. In fact, most of the beef from northern Indiana beef and dairy industry flows through packers with that requirement.

Locally, if you sell steers or cull cows or any sort of beef or dairy beef through the auctions, you will be required to have that certification because the auctions sell to packers with a BQA requirement. There are two ways to get certified, one is online at www.bqa.org. The other is by attending a meeting.

There are two meeting dates where in-person training will be held via a video conference in Indiana: all beginning at 6:30 p.m. and ending at 9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2 and Tuesday, Nov. 7. The northern Indiana sites are:

Thursday, Nov. 2

• Shipshewana Livestock Auction. Register by calling (260) 499-6334
• Kosciusko County Extension Office. Register by calling (547) 372-2340

Tuesday, Nov. 7

• Milan Feed & Grain, New Haven. Register by calling (260) 925-2562
• Pulaski Co Highway Garage. Register by calling (574) 946-3412
• Adams Co Fairground. Register by calling (260) 724-5322
• Marshall Co Extension Office. Register by calling (574) 935-8545
• Miami Co Fairgrounds Community Building. Register by calling (765) 472-1921

For other sites in throughout Indiana, visit shorturl.at/DOY58

A few other things to know. The meetings are free. You only need to attend one meeting. There will be an exam at the end of the session. If you do not turn in the exam, you will not be certified. You will be asked for your name, address, phone, and email address when you register. If you do not have email, please let the person know when you register. If you have a common last name, say Yoder or Miller, it will be helpful to include a middle name or initial.

For more information, call one of the Extension Offices listed above.