Local market earns beef quality assurance award
The 101 Livestock Market in Aromas received the 2010 Beef
Quality Assurance Award Jan. 28, at the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association Convention.
Market owner Jim Warren received the award in San Antonio,
Texas.
The award is given out each year to a dairy and beef producer
that show
”
a desire to continually improve Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) on
their operations while successfully encouraging others around them
to implement BQA,
”
according to a press release.
Warren’s operation was selected from cattle companies across the
United States.
Local market earns beef quality assurance award
The 101 Livestock Market in Aromas received the 2010 Beef Quality Assurance Award Jan. 28, at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Convention.
Market owner Jim Warren received the award in San Antonio, Texas.
The award is given out each year to a dairy and beef producer that show “a desire to continually improve Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) on their operations while successfully encouraging others around them to implement BQA,” according to a press release.
Warren’s operation was selected from cattle companies across the United States.
“It’s amazing when you are nominated,” he said. “You never think you are going to win because there are lots of people all across the United Sates doing things like we are. You don’t really think it’s possible, but I was excited about the honor of being nominated. When you win, it is very much appreciated.”
Warren was nominated by Matt Byrne, the executive vice president of the California Cattlemen’s Association.
The winners are selected by a committee that includes representatives from universities, state beef councils and cattle industry groups.
Warren has been with the 101 Livestock Market since 1975, with a staff of 12 full-time employees, and up to 20 on auction days. Each year, the auction sells between 30,000 and 60,000 cattle. The beef cattle range from 200 pounds to slaughter cows and bulls.
To create the design of the auction, Warren worked with Temple Grandin, an animal behaviorist and engineer who specialized in creating humane systems to move cattle at auctions and slaughterhouses.
“We sell from Ventura in the South, all the way up to Willits in the North,” Warren said, including owners from San Benito County.
Joe Morris, of T.O. Cattle Company, buys cattle from the auction five to 10 times a year, and occasionally sells cattle there as well.
“I think Jim and Monty do a really good job of merchandising the cattle,” Morris said, “Making sure they are ready to sell and helping local ranchers figure out how to market – and getting buyers to come to buy them.”
Warren said he has been working with his staff and the producers who sell through the market for the last 20 years to increase the quality of beef that makes it onto the market.
“A lot of people don’t appreciate the federal government, but they have been instrumental in keeping major highly communicable diseases out of the United States,” Warren said. “They provided the highest [standards] and we said those are great. We appreciate the effort and that’s where quality assurance came from.”
Warren holds monthly meetings on safety, animal health and building issues for his employees.
Some of the efforts on which Warren has worked with producers in the last two decades include vaccinations for the cattle so that they are healthier and more marketable. The other is an animal identification program so that no matter where the cattle end up, they can still be tracked back to the owner who raised them from calves.
“It says something for the producer who is going to put his mark on that calf and say that ‘I raised it,'” he said. “If you look at the trends in the market, that is what the consumer is asking for. They know it was care for humanely, they know how it was raised and they are willing to put their mark on it.”
Morris said he is confident when he buys cattle at the 101 Livestock Market that they will be healthy.
“And if they have the electronic ID that is a good indicator of that,” he said, “That they are in good health and they have been taken care of.”
In addition, in 1990, Warren’s staff began selling any animal with potential health issues into a class called “subject,” according to a press release from the company. Once an animal is marked subject, they are sent to federally inspected processing plants. The sellers are not paid unless the animals are improved.
“This takes away the temptation to push objectionable animals through the system,” according to the press release, “And puts the responsibility for these animals where it should be – on the owner.” The market does not accept non-ambulatory cattle.
Warren is quick to share the credit for the award.
“We accepted it on behalf of our producers,” he said. “They are the ones that really made it possible. If they hadn’t bought into the stuff, this award wouldn’t have been possible. It’s the best program in the world, but if nobody believes in it, it is not going to be successful.”
Said Byrne, who nominated Warren:
“Being transparent and allowing people to see the operation has been good for business. Jim said animal rights groups have seen that 101 Livestock was as committed to the animal well-being as they were. 101 Livestock is the center for cattle activity on the Central Coast. Media, non-ag, and humane groups all look to 101 Livestock for answers to critical issues. Jim’s advanced media training and positive approach to these issues help the beef industry put its best foot forward. And Jim has reached out to other markets to help them improve their facilities and transportation, feeding and loading operations.”
