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Fair Animals are Food Animals

“Produce healthy and safe animal products by being a
knowledgeable and responsible youth producer”

***Understand Your Role In Food Animal Production***

Animal Used for Food Production:

Almost every livestock animal exhibited at the fair/show will be used to produce food products for human consumption.  For this reason it is critical that all youth raising livestock and parents of youth exhibiting animals at the fair/show recognize their role in food animal production and quality assurance.

What is Quality Assurance:

What does quality assurance mean? Quality is defined as distinguished characteristics, standards, or a level of excellence. Assurance is defined as a pledge or promise, confidence, or making something certain. Quality assurance in the production of food animals (dairy and beef cattle, sheep, hogs, goats, etc) refers to the measures or actions producers, both adult and youth, take to ensure the production of safe, wholesome, and high quality animal food products that meet or exceed consumers expectations

Why Should I Participate in Quality Assurance:

Today’s consumers are concerned about food safety and quality. For these reasons packing plants are requiring verification from producers assuring the animals they raise and market are free of chemical and physical hazards; and safe for human consumption. There are many things you can do as a youth producer to help promote food safety when selecting, raising, and marketing a fair animal that is a food animal and will end up on someone’s dinner table. Remember, we are also consumers and demand high quality, safe food products.

What Makes a Champion Animal?

  • Good Breeding — Selection
  • Good Management Hard Work
  • Correct Feeding — Knowledge
  • Proper Fitting and Showing Practice

Some Champions do NOT Receive
Purple Ribbons and Trophies —

— Be proud of the food animal you produced both inside and outside of the ring. Your job as a youth producer of food animals is to produce high quality and safe meat products that are demanded by today’s consumers.

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BE A CHAMPION OUTSIDE THE SHOWRING

***Promote Good Production Practices***

Good Production Practices for Today’s Youth Livestock Producers:

  1. Acknowledge that it is your job to provide safe, wholesome, high quality animal products for
  2. Understand how to read label directions carefully for every feed additive, drug or chemical
  3. Identify and track all animals concerning drugs administration
    1. Animals need to be identified so that they can be monitored following treatment until drug withdrawal is
    2. Use ear notching, ear tags, tattoos, etc for animal “The big pig with a spot on in right shoulder” is probably not a good or adequate means of identification.
  4. Maintain medical and treatment
    1. Each time you treat an animal, write down the following: Animal treated, date of treatment, condition being treated, estimated weight of animal, product and dosage used, route of administration (intramuscular or subcutaneous), who gave the treatment, withdrawal time, completed withdrawal date, and list vet name and phone number for Rx or extra-label drug
  5. Obtain and use veterinary prescription drugs through a licensed veterinarian based on a valid veterinarian/client/patient
  6. All family members should be educated about quality assurance, food safety, and animal
  7. Establish an efficient and effective plan of action concerning project goals and animal care and
  8. Biosecurity is critical for the safety of American Fairs and youth have an important role in practicing biosecurity measures—quarantine new or show animals introduced to the herd, keep complete records of animal health, and properly maintain and clean facilities and equipment.
  9. Complete quality assurance checklist and evaluate production to ensure good production practices are being
    1. Keep up to date with new industry practices so you can be confident that you are producing top quality animals for food

Reading a Feed Label:

Is the Feed Medicated? — If the feed is medicated, the feed will be marked “MEDICATED” following the name of the feed. The label will list the amount of “medication” in the feed and how much feed should be fed per animal. IMPORTANT—Pay attention to the withdrawal time. Withdrawal time is the amount of time the medicated feed must be withheld from the animal before slaughter.

Is the Feed Approved for Your Animal? t is against federal regulations to feed ruminants (cattle, sheep or goats) feed that contain ruminant meat and bone meal. Do not us any feed that is not specifically formulated for ruminants (i.e. pig, horse, poultry, rabbit, etc.) because it can contain ingredients that will make your animal sick or are ILLEGAL.