Patriot Guardens holds Beef Quality Assurance workshops, hopes to grow beef markets in West Virginia

Photo By Edwin Wriston | West Virginia University Extension Agent John David Johnson teaches a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) workshop on behalf of the West Virginia Military Authority’s Patriot Guardens program in Charleston, W.Va., Oct. 23, 2019. BQA certification provides beef producers across the U.S. the opportunity to learn proper food safety and quality protocols and techniques to ensure consistent quality of beef products throughout the field to table process in order to increase the health and profitability of the U.S. beef market. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Edwin Wriston)  

CHARLESTON, WV, UNITED STATES

10.23.2019

Story by Edwin Wriston 

West Virginia National Guard

The West Virginia Military Authority’s Patriot Guardens program held the first of two Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) workshops in Charleston, Oct. 23, 2019, providing West Virginia beef producers the opportunity to become BQA certified and expand beef production and beef markets in the state. A second workshop will be held Oct. 30, 2019.

The BQA certification is a nationally coordinated, state-implemented program that provides systematic information to U.S. beef producers and beef consumers of how common-sense husbandry techniques can be coupled with accepted scientific knowledge to raise cattle under optimum management and environmental conditions.

Attendees of the workshop received advanced training on food safety and quality protocols and techniques, consumer confidence in beef products, how to improve sale value of marketed beef cattle, herd profitability through better management, and how the farmer, packer, and consumer all contribute to a healthy and safe beef market.

“The workshop touched on things today that will help me make my future herds safer and hopefully more profitable,” stated retired United States Marine Corps veteran Justin Wayne Ice who owns and operates 16 Creeks Farm and Ranch in Mason County, West Virginia. “I am getting to learn about different things, including transportation issues with cattle that I wasn’t familiar with or hadn’t thought about before. Between the education and the networking opportunities with other producers, I think it’s fantastic.”

Those who attend both workshops will earn a 3-year BQA certification that will make it easier to sell their beef to wider markets while increasing the overall value of their herds.

Across the state, West Virginia farmers produce approximately 7.3 million pounds of red meat annually, including beef, pork, veal, lamb, and mutton. Current direct, induced, and indirect economic impact of meat production and processing in the state is estimated to be at least $604 million. Yet, West Virginia’s total red meat harvest is merely 5.5% of the state’s total annual consumption. This means the overall beef production market is ripe for growth.

“This industry certified education provides our local farmers and beef producers with the tools and resources to enhance their operations to meet the standards that more and more markets are now requiring,” stated lead instructor John David Johnson, West Virginia University Extension Agent for Jackson County West Virginia. “Getting trained and BQA certified now will allow producers to increase access to both local and regional markets in the future. This in turn will provide extra incentive to grow their operations and increase the West Virginia beef market overall.”

In order to facilitate a more robust market in West Virginia, Buzz Food Service will be opening a state-of-the-art processing plant in Kanawha County later this year. Upon opening, the Appalachian Abattoir facility will create approximately 30 full time jobs, and an additional 15 to 20 temporary and seasonal jobs in the greater Kanawha Valley. More importantly, the facility will give producers in West Virginia a local fully certified United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected slaughter and processing facility to help them bring their herds from field to table.

“Our new Abattoir facility will be a fully certified USDA inspected processing plant, the only one in West Virginia,” said Annie Stroud, Project Manager for Appalachian Abattoir program at Buzz Food Service. “As such, the facility must meet rigorous standards for not only what end product goes out our doors, but the initial beef product coming in our doors as well. BQA certification will be one of the base-level requirements for producers to have in order for us to accept their beef products.”

“By ensuring higher quality product coming in our doors, we can then provide consistently higher quality finished meat products to our customers and consumers around the state,” she added. “Working with the Patriot Guardens program to provide this level of education for our local producers is a win-win-win for the producers, us, and ultimately West Virginia consumers.”

Patriot Guardens will be working closely with Buzz Food Service and the WVU Extension Service to provide additional hands-on and classroom-based workshops around the state over the next few years to help educate producers and grow the beef market in West Virginia.

The Patriot Guardens program is an integrated agriculture and economic development initiative of the West Virginia Military Authority. It seeks to create an agriculture-centric system to assist West Virginians, particularly but not limited to veterans and military personnel, in education, training, and entrepreneurial ventures while also supporting veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse while collaborating with other private and non-profit agricultural development groups.

The BQA workshops are supported by the Enhancing Agricultural Opportunities for Military Veterans (AgVets) Grant Program [grant no. 2019-77028-29970] from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Anyone wanting additional information about the BQA process can visit https://www.bqa.org, or contact their local WVU Extension agent. Additional information on Buzz Foods and the Appalachian Abattoir project can be found at http://www.buzzfoodsvc.com/abattoir. Those wishing to find out more about the Patriot Guardens program or to register for future workshops and educational opportunities can visit https://www.wv.ng.mil/PatriotGuardens/, call [phone], or email [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 10.23.2019
• Date Posted: 10.24.2019 15:07
• Story ID: 349110
• Location: CHARLESTON, WV, US