Quality Assurance

BQA winner utilizes various ways to maintain top quality

by Nancy Carver Singleton

Anne Burkholder of Will Feed Inc., Cozad, Neb., received the first-ever Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) award from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Standing with Burkholder are daughters from left: Megan, 6; Karyn, 4; and Ashley Grace, 9.

At her 3,000 head feedyard, Anne Burkholder is a picture of beef quality assurance at work. As owner and manager of Will Feed Inc. in Cozad, Neb., Burkholder started BQA training early in her feedyard career.

Nebraska’s BQA program asks feedyards to develop a treatment protocol manual. Burkholder worked with the feedyard’s consulting veterinarian and nutritionist to write a comprehensive manual seven or eight years ago with “standard operating procedures” for calf receiving and feeding protocols; administering vaccines, antibiotics and implants; withdrawl times; selection of needles; etc. Pullout reference guides —“cheat sheets”— can be carried around if needed.

“Basically, I’ve tried to develop a book so that if something comes up and I’m not there, my crew will have access to information on how to handle the situation.” Burkholder and her consulting veterinarian update the manual each year.

Burkholder grew up in Florida and met her husband at college. They married and moved to Cozad. Anne is now feedlot owner and wears a number of hats ranging from head cowboy to feeding foreman to marketing manager.

She is chairperson of the Beef Quality Assurance Technical Advisory Committee for the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association. Burkholder helped develop a Master Transporter Program that provides BQA training for truck drivers and was involved in a DVD on BQA protocol for livestock auctions. “We’ve tried to fill in the holes so everyone handling these calves is certified.”

“Because I was a consumer for many years before I was a producer, I believe that the beef industry needs to work to ‘complete the quality assurance circle.’ That means that every calf born in the United States has the opportunity to be handled by a quality assurance educated handler from the time that the calf drops to the ground to the time that he goes to harvest.” She said this “philosophy” provides the basis for the recent expansion of BQA programs.

Will Feed developed an acclimation protocol where new calves exit their pens once a day, learn to run in straight lines along alleys and then return to their pens where they receive “a treat” in their full feed bunks.

“If animals are used to running on thousands of acres, it is big for them to transition to the confinement of a feedyard. Acclimation gives them somewhere to go once a day and allows them to associate comfort (new feed) with the home pen.”

Good communication with employees is key. Employee meetings are held each Friday morning. “It just gives us a way to make sure everybody is on the same page. Communication is vital in a business. When you are handling animals, it is even more important.”