BQA Relationships

Iowa Beef Industry Council

The major carryout responsibility for the BQA program rests with the Iowa Beef Industry Council in cooperation with NCBA, Iowa State University, ICA and the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association. This is a major effort to improve Iowa beef for increased consumption. Checkoff funds are used to support the Beef Quality Assurance program.

Iowa Beef Center

The Iowa Beef Center is a unit of the College of Agriculture and College of Veterinary Medicine with funding from Iowa State University Extension. IBC is part of the cooperative effort to develop and maintain an individual animal database management program which will provide a public database of relevant information for the Iowa beef industry. Beef Center Extension will prepare summary reports of comparative statistics on a statewide database.

Iowa Preconditioning Program

Preconditioning is designed to reduce morbidity and mortality risks due to health problems by providing a set of guidelines for producers to follow developed by the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association (IVMA) in cooperation with ICA. A fully preconditioned calf enters the feedlot after having been weaned for 30 days, bunk adjusted, vaccinated for the major infectious diseases, treated for external parasites, and castrated and dehorned if necessary. Once these procedures are completed by a veterinarian, a green tag is clamped in the upper portion of the calf’s left ear. These green tags are issued to veterinarians by the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, and each tag carries an identification number. Participants in the PC program may be encouraged to utilize activated electronic tags in the future.

The second step in the preconditioning program is the IVMA Preconditioning Certificate. This certificate, official only if signed by the attending veterinarian, is not issued until all calves listed in the certificate by green tag number have been weaned at least 30 days. Another requirement is that the calves must be owned at least 60 days by the person whose signature appears on the certificate.

Iowa PC calves provide a large supply of source identified cattle. Requirements of the PC program are determined by a joint effort of the IVMA and ICA.

NCBA National Cattle Identification System

The 1999 NCBA Convention adopted the following National Cattle Identification mission statement: To develop and implement a voluntary National Cattle Identification System that will be shared and used mutually by all segments. The focus of the NCID System is information sharing to facilitate value-based marketing, with source verification a secondary benefit.

The following are responsibilities outlined for various segments participating in NCID.

Cow-calf producers: this industry segment can make changes that will positively or negatively impact the beef industry. Adoption of the NCID system by cow-calf producers is critical to the system’s success. This group would also be partly responsible for funding of the database through electronic tag purchase.

Backgrounder/Stocker: this segment can have a significant impact on how the animal will perform in the feedlot, thus consequently management strategies become an integral part of the equation. By having good information about how the animals in each of their management scenarios are performing, this segment can tailor a program for each group of animals. This segment will also be privy to the cow-calf information and know what kind of product they are getting and be prepared to capitalize on their current resources and strategies.

Feedyard: by knowing individual animal performance and historical carcass data, better decisions can be made on optimum feeding systems. Information from cow-calf and backgrounder producers will allow feedyard managers to categorize suppliers and put differential value on individual animals.