At a recent Oklahoma Quality Beef Network (OQBN) sale at OKC West livestock auction market in El Reno, Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association reported that 1,343 head of cattle were sold. Demand was strong for these preconditioned OQBN cattle.

"The February sale at OKC West was the seventh sale of the OQBN, according to Scott Dewald, OCA executive vice president. "We are extremely pleased with the preliminary results of the program for Oklahoma beef producers."

More than one year ago, the OCA, OSU Cooperative Extension, OSU veterinarian staff members and state beef producers began meeting to develop guidelines to address the profitability of small to medium size cow-calf producers. Research indicates that producers in Oklahoma have the capacity to increase profitability by following particular animal health and nutrition programs. The result was a brand and breed neutral animal health and nutrition program.

According to Joe Neill, OCA president, "the term "Network" was specifically chosen to indicate that this project is a network of all beef producers; purebred, cow-calf, stockers, feeders and OSU Cooperative Extension, livestock marketing facilities, participating veterinarians and other agribusinesses."

The OQBN offers beef producers a program that will assist all sizes of cattle operations in preparing and marketing their cattle more efficiently. The OQBN provides beef producers with a producer owned and directed system that will meet the growing demand for process verified cattle.

"The buyers have expressed the need to purchase more uniform groups of healthier calves that will gain more efficiently. With this scenario, everyone benefits, the producer, the feeder, the packer and ultimately the consumer," said Neill.

Dewald added, "Since the very beginning, the stated goal of this cooperative effort was to add value to Oklahoma calves and capture part of that value for Oklahoma cattle producers. It appears with the demand for these cattle, we are on the right track. To date, we have held over seven OQBN sales featuring over 8,000 OQBN certified calves from 120 Oklahoma ranches."

The OQBN was recently highlighted at six district OCA meetings. Many had not heard about the meetings first hand, said Dewald. "The district meetings gave us a chance to take all of our programs to them, and to personally update them on our efforts at the capitol and current issues facing the industry." ©