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

Jeff Burbrink

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, 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.

Local beef and dairy producers have told me it is worth the effort to do the BQA training because they get a $40-50 premium on the animal they sell.

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: Oct. 29 and Nov. 19, all beginning at 6:30 p.m. and ending at 9 p.m. Eastern time. The two northern Indiana sites are:

Tuesday, Oct. 29
• Shipshewana Livestock Auction. 345 S Van Buren St. Register by calling the LaGrange County Extension Office at (260) 499-6334.

Tuesday, Nov. 19
• Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds, Fairboard Meeting Room, 17746 CR 34, Goshen. Call (574) 533-0554.

A few other things to know. The meetings are free. You only need to attend one meeting. There will be a self-graded 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, let the person know when you register. If you have a common last name, it will be helpful to include a middle name or initial.

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