Jim Lee and Tim Goldsmith gave a presentation and led discussion on the potential for inclusion of worker health and safety training into quality assurance programs at the 2014 National Cattleman’s Beef Association’s State Beef Quality Assurance Coordinators meeting in Denver, CO May 15 & 16th. The meeting is an assembly of around fifty State Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) coordinators and educators from around the country.This group is responsible for developing national guidelines on quality assurance programs for all segments of the cattle industry, as well as developing training materials for their respective states.

The title of their presentation was “Quality Assurance Programs: Potential for Agriculture Worker Health and Safety”. There was wide interest and engagement with meeting attendees on the incorporation of worker safety and health training both on the national level and within specific state programs. Attendees expressed specific interest in developing materials on needle-stick injury avoidance and farm-related ATV accidents. Quality assurance programs have the potential to be a wide reaching vehicle for agricultural safety and health training materials.