Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) is basically a synonym for Best Management Practices with the spin of having a focus on the consumer. Beef producers are doing their best to assure quality beef for their buyers. The BQA website best describes the purpose as “good husbandry techniques coupled with accepted scientific knowledge to raise cattle under optimum management conditions.” This voluntary, national program has been in existence for more than 30 years. When BQA guidelines are followed properly, the resulting beef produce will be less likely to contain product quality defects including residues, injection site tissue damage, or foreign material (such as a broken needle). These are all things highly related to eating quality and food safety.
What makes this difficult is the fact that there are many family-owned cattle producers in our country. There is no centralized production as there is with other animal agriculture like poultry and pork. There are over 600,000 U.S. cattle ranchers and nearly 97% are family-owned. While this is a plus in many respects, it can come with some drawbacks such as producing a very consistent product. BQA has helped to improve this consistency in many aspects.
While it can sound overwhelming, most producers are already following most of the BQA principles. The main reason is that BQA principles are really both good for producing a quality product and increasing profitability. Almost every aspect of cattle production is touched by BQA principles. Biosecurity, herd health, transportation, record keeping, nutrition, and other topics are included in BQA. Each of these topics also affects the economic viability of your cattle business.
There are both online and in-person certification programs available. Once you are BQA certified, you won’t need to renew for 3 years. If you would like to go through the online course, you can visit BQA.org At this site you will also find resources that you can use to help you implement BQA on you operation. There are in-person BQA programs held around the state at various times. One event coming up is at the Florida Cattlemen’s Institute and Allied Trade Show in Wauchula on January 15, 2026. There is an online registration and more information at FCIATS.com This year’s program topics include record keeping, nutrition and body condition scoring, health plans and vaccine handling, and more. Among the speakers, Dr. David Lalman from Oklahoma State University will be present.
The efforts beef producers have made in following Beef Quality Assurance principles have been a big reason that beef demand has been re-built and prices are at an all-time high. American beef is in high demand because of the great strides we have made in beef quality. This quality improvement has been both the result of improved genetics and management. So, if you are enjoying the high cattle prices, BQA is a big deal. Keep doing your part to assure consumers that they are buying a quality beef product.
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