New Certification Requirement

Transporters who haul cattle to packing plants need to attend a workshop, or an online course, to become Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Transportation certified before the end of the year.

Heidi Carroll, South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension livestock stewardship field specialist, stresses, "January 1, 2020, is the deadline most major packers have set. They will not accept cattle [after that]from transporters who are not BQA Transportation certified." She adds "transporters" include farmer-feeders and commercial truckers. Pretty much any individual who hauls cattle directly to a harvest facility will need the certification.

The national BQA program has made the process as easy as possible. Transporters may attend a workshop in their area, which normally takes 2 to 4 hours. Alternatively, they may go online to www.bqa.org and complete the curriculum, which is estimated to take about 2 hours. The training focuses on issues including transporter safety, delivery of cattle in a timely manner, cattle fitness for transport, cattle handling and emergency preparedness.

South Dakota's Carroll notes their last workshop of the year will be December 10, 2019, at Sioux Falls Regional Livestock.

(AG/ SK)

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