More than a cowboy

By Arden Wohlers DVM
Extension Veterinarian
University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Education Center

The 1980s were a bleak time to be a cowboy. There were serious production problems in the methods that cattle were raised, transported, and marketed. Articles appeared in the scientific press that stated meat was damaging to your health. It was a wake up call to change meat production methods that had survived for a century on the image of the rugged American cowboy and the way it had always been done. Today’s cattleman can look, act, and work hard in the traditional way, but he needs to be responsible and liable for the product he produces. Today’s consumers are demanding responsibility and accountability from our food industry. The food the cowboy produces is beef and he needs to satisfy the consumer. This has come to mean that the cattle under his care have been managed and treated correctly. He must assure the consumer of the safety and quality of the beef they eat. The beef producer also needed to present the scientific evidence of the health benefits and nutritional value of his product.

These challenges lead to Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) programs in the major beef producing states. BQA means that producers, veterinarians and all others involved in the production of beef use their best management skills and accepted scientific knowledge to avoid defects in the product they deliver to the consumer. Beef producers that become BQA certified have received training in record keeping, proper product storage, preventing injection site blemishes, treatment protocols, and low stress animal handling and transporting techniques. Modern cattle facilities and new transportation guidelines have reduced the bruising and stress that can cause an inferior beef product. There has been a reduction in damage to hides by improved placement of brands. The safety of meat to the consumer has reached extremely high levels by the reduction of organisms such as E. coli. There have been great strides taken in the improvement of beef in the last 15 years. But the industry has set high goals of making additional improvements. There is still room to reduce the condemnation of variety meats such as liver and tongue that mostly go to foreign markets. Surveys indicate that there needs to be more uniformity in flavor and tenderness of beef products. The rancher will need to continue efforts to add more value to his product by developing improved genetics in his cattle, maintaining performance history on his calves, having disease prevention strategies in place and implementing age and source verification programs. Verification programs will become critical to document the standards that beef production has in place to give the consumer a high quality, nutritious and safe food.

As nutritional research on the value of beef in the diet continues, it has become scientifically evident that beef has the minerals, vitamins and protein (all nine essential amino acids) that are critical to human health. Beef tallow contains stearic acid, a beneficial saturated fat that actually lowers cholesterol. Beef also contains conjugated linoleic acid that has numerous potential health benefits. This knowledge may reverse some of the dietary recommendations that were made 20 years ago. The remaining step in having a quality product on our dinner plate will be training the homemaker the proper way to prepare and cook beef. Through the efforts of BQA programs beef is not only getting better, but it has been proven that beef is good for you.

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