The Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine's beef production medicine group is collaborating with the Kansas Livestock Association, the Kansas Beef Council and National Cattlemen's Beef Association to offer a Beef Quality Assurance feedlot assessment service for feedlots in the state of Kansas at no cost.

Beef Quality Assurance is a national program that raises consumer confidence through offering proper management techniques and a commitment to quality within every segment of the beef industry.

The college will provide six veterinary students to conduct these feedlot assessments for bovine veterinarians who work with feedlots in the state.

"The college conducted a project similar to this in 2012," said Dan Thomson, Jones professor of production medicine and epidemiology at the college. "It is time to keep our feedlots current."

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association hosts a national Beef Quality Assurance feedlot assessment database.

"This database is protected from freedom of information requests and is a private list for packers/retailers — feedlots must give their permission to be placed on the list," Thomson said. "These assessments do not need to be conducted by our group. If a veterinarian is doing them for a feedlot, then we recommend asking to see if feedlot would like to be placed on the list."

More information about the database is available online, beefresearch.org/beefissuesquarterly.aspx?id=4828. Assessment forms are available at BQA.org.

Requests for feedlot assessments by the Kansas State University veterinary student groups can be submitted to Thomson at dthomson@vet.k-state.edu. The assessments will be scheduled during June and July.