VERONA, Wisc. (Dec. 18, 2023) – The UW-Madison Division of Extension and Wisconsin Beef Council are offering two webinars that will review results from the 2022 National Beef Quality Audit. They will be held on January 18th, with a session starting at 11:30 a.m. for dairy producers and another at 7:00 p.m. for beef producers. Each program will last about an hour.
Michaela Clowser, Director of Producer Education for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, will present results from the audit and how they apply to dairy and beef farms in each respective session. Since 1991, the Beef Checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) has delivered a set of guideposts and measurements for cattle producers and other stakeholders to help determine quality conformance of the U.S. beef supply. Results from the 2022 NBQA indicate that the cattle industry is producing a high-quality product that consumers want more efficiently and the industry’s primary focus across the supply chain remains food safety.
To register for either program, go to:
Dairy – https://go.wisc.edu/7j2jc7
Beef – https://go.wisc.edu/0ho72t
Both webinars will be recorded for viewing and posted on https://go.wisc.edu/n55x3o within one week of the live program.
“The NBQA is an important tool for the industry to identify where improvements are being made and where there are opportunities to capture more value,” said Bill Halfman, Beef Outreach Specialist with UW-Madison’s Division of Extension. “The good news is, overall, the beef industry is providing a quality product to consumers that they enjoy.”
Based on individual interviews with stakeholders from across the cattle industry as well as in-plant research, key learnings for fed cattle from the 2022 NBQA include:
- Market segments no longer consider food safety as a purchasing criterion, but an expectation.
- When comparing 2016 and 2022 NBQAs, the largest improvement was overall increased efficiency across the beef supply chain.
- Foreign materials continue to present a problem, but the industry is making strides to decrease incidence.
- There was an increase in usage of electronic identification (EID).
- There was an increase in the frequency of Prime and Choice quality grades, while Select decreased drastically.
The NBQA, conducted approximately every five years, provides an understanding of what quality means to the various industry sectors, and the value of those quality attributes. This research helps the industry make modifications necessary to increase the value of its products. The efforts of the findings from the 2022 NBQA serve to improve quality, minimize economic loss, and aid in advancements in producer education for the U.S. beef industry. For more information about the 2022 National Beef Quality Audit, visit www.bqa.org.
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