Purdue News

May 30, 2002 Training offered to certify beef producers WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Five State Beef Initiative will hold training sessions June 3-5 to better equip producers for access to value-added markets. The location of the meetings will vary. The first session will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday (6/3) at the Indiana Beef Cattle Association in Indianapolis. Tuesday's (6/4) session will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Southeast Purdue Ag Center, Butlerville, Ind. The final session on Wednesday (6/5) will be conducted at 7 p.m. via satellite through the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System (IHETS). Producers must contact their local Extension office for broadcast locations in their area. Each meeting will last three hours and refreshments will be provided. A fee of $25 will cover the costs of reference manuals and meetings. Through these programs, producers can become certified in the areas of health and beef quality, genetics, environmental stewardship, animal handling and well-being, and recordkeeping and data management. At each session producers will take a short test on the training information. Producers may become certified in both the IQ+BEEF program and the Five State Beef Initiative following the training. Certification lasts three years and must be renewed to stay in the program. After becoming certified, producers can take part in special feeder calf sales during the fall of 2002. The goal is to sell the cattle in 50,000-pound semi load lots. Cattle will be sorted by color, breed and weight. Calves must be vaccinated and meet the 2002 FSBI/IQ+BEEF Health Protocol. The calves must have an electronic identification tag and unique visual tag that allows them to be tracked through the production cycle. The IQ+ BEEF program and Five State Beef Initiative work together to provide new opportunities for Indiana and the Eastern Corn Belt's beef industry. Through a cooperative effort of land-grant universities, state departments of agriculture, cattlemen associations, livestock marketing organizations, Farm Bureaus and postharvest partners, the FSBI works to strengthen economic opportunities and pass the added value on to consumers. For more information, call 1-888-EXT-INFO or visit the Five State Beef web site. IHETS is a state-supported consortium of public and private colleges and universities providing technology services, network operations, and facilitation of distance education in Indiana. Writer: Andrea Campbell, (765) 494-8402, news_students@aes.purdue.edu Source: Ronald Lemenager, professor of animal sciences, (765) 494-4817, rpl@purdue.edu Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722; Beth Forbes, bforbes@aes.purdue.edu; https://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/AgComm/public/agnews/ Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page