The Beef Quality Assurance Program recently released its latest summary in a pilot project study that was conducted in collaboration with the Idaho Beef Council and California Beef Council. The summary evaluated the quality of market dairy cows being sold at auction. Here is an excerpt from the press release…

Jason K. Ahola, former University of Idaho Extension Beef Specialist now with Colorado State University, and Holly A. Foster, independent contractor for the California Beef Council, recently released an executive summary for a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) pilot project. The study summarized in the publication is based on procedures that have been utilized in previous checkoff-funded quality audits and was designed to give dairy producers more information about how their animals are valued within the beef chain when they are sold through auction markets.

“Trickle-down economics is observed daily in the salvage cattle market,” says Gary Smith, Ph.D., Monfort Endowed Chair in Meat Science, Colorado State University. “Packer-buyers pay more for animals that will yield more or higher-quality products – and that goes straight to the producers’ bottom line.”

The goal of this project was to provide dairy producers information that was not previously available about the potential value of their market cows and bulls. It also underscores that existing industry recommendations to cull animals in a timely manner are one of the best measures to maintain their value and enhance their carcass quality.