Championing the BQA Cause

An emphasis on beef quality assurance helps this Nebraska “Boss Lady” set up both calves and feedyard for success.

By her own admission, Anne Burkholder is not a very spontaneous person. She appreciates order and claims to function best while adhering to a routine. She’s also not overly fond of surprises. You might think a self-described creature of habit would be reluctant to step outside her comfort zone and that it’s unlikely such a person would choose to run a feedyard. Few women take up that profession, and few, male or female, choose it when they lack an agricultural background.

But not Anne Burkholder. She didn’t expect to become a cattle feeder – not while growing up in very urban Palm Beach County, Fla., and not while studying psychology at very “Ivy League” Dartmouth College. She didn’t foresee it when she met and married a young electrical engineer, even though his family owned a diversified Nebraska farming and cattle feeding operation. She also didn’t anticipate moving there a year later, and joining the family business. But in 1997, the couple decided Nebraska was where they wanted to raise a family.

They now have three daughters and, for the last several years, Anne has managed Will Feed, Inc., a 3,000-head finishing yard located near Cozad. During most of that time she has championed the cause of Beef Quality Assurance (BQA), the national program providing guidelines for beef cattle production.

Burkholder chairs the Nebraska BQA Advisory Committee and is a proponent of BQA training and certification at every level of production. In 2009, she received the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association BQA Producer of the Year Award. Burkholder is a true believer who claims her own BQA training was a pivotal part of her cattle education. That training helped shape Burkholder’s attitude toward running a feedyard, and BQA practices are fundamental to the daily care and management of animals at Will Feed.

“My father-in-law spilled his glass of milk on the table when I first told him I was interested in the feedyard,” tells Burkholder, explaining how her husband, Matt, was more interested in the family’s farming and hay mill enterprises than cattle feeding.

“They let me try, despite my lack of knowledge and experience. I wanted to learn, and I went into it with an open mind. One of the first things I did was take BQA training. Its emphasis on problem solving, from the standpoint of a food producer, really appealed to me,” Burkholder adds.

Burkholder’s father-in-law helped her learn the nuts and bolts of feedyard operation, and BQA training introduced more potential mentors. She built a network of resource people, including professional consultants that helped her learn about nutrition, cattle health and handling, plus the record-keeping that goes with each. Burkholder learned about procurement of feedstuffs and the buying and selling of cattle. As a manager, she remains very hands-on. She’s earned the respect of the feedyard’s three employees who have dubbed her the “Boss Lady.”

These days, Burkholder prefers to purchase cattle herself, rather than through order buyers. She likes to deal directly with ranchers, buying both calves and yearlings. They come from northern and western Nebraska, predominately, and most arrive with a documented health history.

“Knowing their vaccination history and how the cattle have been handled helps us manage them better in the feedyard. I talk to ranchers about their health programs and what they can do to make their calves worth more to me. Most of the calves I buy can be age- and source-verified too, so that typically adds a little premium at harvest,” she says.

“I like to work with ranchers who want (feedlot performance and carcass) data on the cattle they raise. I market finished animals mostly through US Premium Beef and they’ve been good about sharing data. Sharing data helps everyone involved change from a commodity business to a value-added business. We can all get better together.”

Emphasis on BQA practices is a way Burkholder strives to make Will Feed better and better yet. BQA, she says, addresses four general areas which are the essential elements of cattle feeding. They include nutrition management, health management, animal husbandry, and record-keeping. With the help of key consultants (including veterinarians and a ruminant nutritionist) and the input of employees, she has developed a manual of standard operating procedures – a collection of protocols which pertain to those core areas and their components.

There is a protocol for nearly everything, including how feed ingredients are stored, mixed, and spread evenly in the feed bunk. It calls for rations to be delivered to a given pen at the same time each day. There’s a protocol for processing cattle, including steps to acclimate new arrivals with exercise and human interaction, in order to minimize stress and reduce sickness. And, of course, a treatment protocol applies if cattle do become sick.

“Part of BQA is figuring out what can go wrong, before it does, and having a plan to handle it. But we can avoid most problems when we focus on all the little things, do them right, and be consistent. We try to set each calf up for success and that sets my crew and I up for success,” explains Burkholder.

On average, cattle fed and marketed by Will Feed grade 80 percent Choice or better, with very few “outs” resulting from excessive yield grade. Among eligible cattle, about 30 percent qualify for Certified Angus Beef®. In fact, Will Feed was recognized as the 2011 CAB Feedlot Partner of the Year for operations up to 15,000-head capacity.

Benchmark data representing feedyards served by Will Feed’s consulting nutritionist indicate the operation ranks well among its contemporaries – above average for dry matter intake, rate of gain, feed conversion, and cost of gain.

“We’ve improved measurably. That’s what happens when you implement BQA at every level. But it’s an ongoing journey. We keep trying to get better by increasing our attention to detail,” states Burkholder. “Some big feedyard managers say our focus on detail won’t work for them – that it can only work in a smaller operation. My theory is this: If it’s a priority, it get’s done. The little things that help make animals thrive are important, so you do them.”

According to Burkholder, the BQA program has evolved from a reactive to a proactive effort. It started in response to concern over beef quality defects such as residues and injection site lesions, to show consumers that participating producers were committed to production of a safe and wholesome product. Now, it also serves as an educational outreach to producers, their employees, and family members. It teaches them, says Burkholder, to access available information and make good decisions from the perspective of a food producer.

Burkholder says growing numbers of people associated with beef production, from birth to harvest, are embracing a BQA attitude. She envisions a day when every beef animal is handled by BQA-trained people – every handler and hauler – who work with cattle, as they go from ranch to feedyard to packing house.

“That,” says Burkholder, “is one of my goals.”