Agricultural News
Beef Industry to See Latest National Beef Quality Audit Results in July
Mon, 18 Jun 2012 03:51:00 CDT
The checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Audit, conducted every five years since 1991, assesses progress the industry makes on a variety of production issues that ultimately affect consumer demand for beef. Keith Belk, Colorado State University, has been involved in the development of the latest audit and says some changes have been made in the way in which data is collected and what kind of data is included in the study.
Dr. Belk says that "We attempted to change Phase One around this year, and Phase Two actually, to collect a bit more data that was maybe more modern using some of the technologies that are now available to us. In Phase One, we designed a survey where we used a software that allowed us to dynamically route questions based on the answers that respondents gave to various questions. And in Phase Two for the first time, have been able to collect a ton of data that resulted from the use of instruments and instrument grading systems."
Belk, our guest on today's Beef Buzz, has been a part of the National Beef Quality Audit process ever since that first report was compiled back in 1991. He tells us that this research continues to evolve and change, but the effort has never deviated from its original intent of improving producer profitability.
Identified in the audit taken in 2005 as the top three quality successes since the 2000 audit were: (1) improved microbiological safety; (2) improved cattle genetics and beef of higher quality; and (3) fewer injection-site lesions. The rankings are from interviews with beef end-users, including exporters, purveyors, foodservice and retail channels.
The National Beef Quality Beef Quality Audit released in 2006 was the first research that looked at the attitude of foreign buyers of US beef after the "Cow that stole Christmas" in December 2003 (our first case of BSE in the US) and it showed, as more foreign markets reopen to U.S. beef, the response from beef exporters on the question, "What one quality attribute could U.S. cattlemen change to make it easier for you to export beef products?." Exporters' response: "source and age verification," followed by "more marbling."
The results from the 2011 National Beef Quality Audit will be released at the upcoming Summer Cattle Industry Conference in July.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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