VB RANCH
Well-known member
Scare tactic or marketing tool
mrj said:It's hard to 'evaluate' the system in his area when we don't know whether the seller of cattle has any alternatives to that particular system. Can he sell to another entity, or is there only one place or way to sell?
He states that it's mandatory in Australia, and they have no other choice, and doesn't feel that there's any financial benefit. This link supports his claims of being required.
https://www.mla.com.au/meat-safety-and-traceability/red-meat-integrity-system/about-the-livestock-production-assurance-program/
As part of the Livestock Production Assurance program, an LPA National Vendor Declaration is required for all livestock movements, including property to property, through saleyards, direct to processors and to feedlots, and to the live export trade.
Here, there are so many different ways to sell, from taking calves of varying ages and degrees and stages of 'weaning' to the sale barn and asking "what will you give me for them", to truly taking in well weaned, bunk trained calves and documenting all the vaccinations and treatments the calves have had, including veterinary recommendations, feed rations, handling styles, and advertising to as broad an area of buyers as necessary to have competition for the cattle, to contracting with feedlot operator/owners who have a processor lined up for those cattle, or contracting the cattle to others up the line between the ranch and the consumer.
But that's the thing, in the article in Beef magazine that VB Ranch linked to, the Colorado State University (CSU) livestock production Extension specialist's opinion, right in the title, states: Why BQA needs to be a mandatory beef industry program.
Atkinson says BQA needs to be a mandatory program. "If our industry would participate in BQA collectively, most of those companies would be happy to accept that for their programs," she states. "If we don't step up to the plate as an industry, there will be a day when we will be regulated from the top down."Atkinson says regulations may be forthcoming from packing houses, which are getting heat from the food service industry. If packers start requiring BQA practices, Atkinson says, it will trickle down to all the other segments of the industry.
Seems easier to blame someone mysterious 'other' who is taking advantage of our efforts in raising the cattle than learning how to raise and actually find a market them for the best [rice that competitors will bid for them.
mrj