Oklahoma Beef Quality Summits Educate Participants

"Beef. It's What's For Dinner" continues to bring on a whole new meaning to approximately 75 producers, feedlot operators, retailers, restaurateurs and others that attended the beef checkoff-funded Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit.

Summit attendees were allowed to see and feel firsthand many of the inconsistencies in beef. The main emphasis of the course was to show the impact of producer management decisions on the quality and consistency of the end product. The Beef Quality Summit is designed to demonstrate the causes and costs of defects and non-conformities to the entire beef industry.

Participants were divided into teams and evaluated live steers in a feedlot setting and followed the carcasses all the way to the retail counter and beyond. The attendees actually fabricated a carcass into wholesale meat cuts and saw for themselves the excess fat put on by producers that may be later trimmed off by the packers and the retailers.

By fabricating the carcasses themselves, Summit attendees were able to see exactly where cuts such as the sirloin strip, ribeye shoulder clod, beef knuckle and mock tender are found.

Anyone interested in attending an Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit can call the Oklahoma Beef Council at (405) 840-3777. The next Summits are scheduled for May 21-23 and May 23-25. Other Summits are scheduled for later in the year. For more information, check their Web site at http://okbic.beef.org.