Beef Production Facts

Animal Welfare

Animal care and raising cattle go hand-in-hand. Producers know that giving animals the proper care, handling and nutrition they deserve is the right thing to do and it makes good business sense. From assisting with calving at midnight to checking on grazing cattle at the crack of dawn – even though a producer’s job is hard work, they remain committed to raising healthy, safe cattle.

Research into the best methods for animal care is now readily available, but much of it validates what producers have known about cattle health and handling for years. In the 1980s, Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) programs across the country incorporated animal welfare practices into its producer education programs. The Producer Code of Cattle Care, developed by the BQA Advisory Board in 1996, served as the first formalized animal welfare guidelines for the beef industry. These standards call for producers to:

• Provide necessary food, water and care to protect the health and well-being of animals.
• Provide disease prevention practices to protect herd health, including access to veterinary care.
• Provide facilities that allow safe, humane and efficient movement and/or restraint of cattle.
• Use appropriate methods to euthanize terminally sick or injured livestock and dispose of them properly. Provide personnel with training/experience to properly handle and care for cattle.
• Make timely observations of cattle to ensure basic needs are being met.
• Minimize stress when transporting cattle.
• Keep updated on advancements and changes in the industry to make decisions based on sound production practices and consideration to animal well-being.

Importantly, the code states that “persons who willfully mistreat animals will not be tolerated.” Now, theses animal care standards that producers have practiced for years, and the scientific basis for them, are expanded and detailed in the “Guidelines for Care and Handling of Beef Cattle.”  Producer leaders worked with animal health and wellbeing experts to develop the guidelines, which are endorsed by the Academy of Veterinary Consultants and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners as well as the Food Marketing Institute and National Council of Chain Restaurants.
Once cattle leave farms, ranches and feedlots across the country, federal meat inspectors assure that meatpacking plants abide by the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, which dictates strict animal handling and slaughtering standards. By law, handling and moving cattle through chutes and pens must not cause stress and livestock must be rendered insensible to pain prior to slaughter.

More information
FACT SHEET: Animal Welfare in Cattle Production