Consumer interest in production agriculture has prompted the beef industry to develop tools to increase accountability of producers for animal management practices. The Beef Quality Assurance Feedyard Assessment, developed by veterinarians, animal scientists, and production specialists, was used to objectively evaluate key areas of beef cattle production such as animal handling, antimicrobial residue avoidance, and cattle comfort in 56 Kansas feedyards. During the assessment, management protocols were reviewed, facilities and pens were inspected, and cattle handling practices were observed. Of the 56 feedyards, 19 maintained complete and current documentation of Best Management Practices for all management protocols required by the assessment. During assessment of cattle handling practices, 78.6% of feedyards met requirements for an Acceptable score for all measured criteria. An electric prod was used on only 4.0% of cattle during processing. In addition, 83.0% of feedyards scored Acceptable for all stocking rate, feed bunk, water tank, and mud score standards.

Understanding consumer expectations of animal welfare and social responsibility can seem like a topic too broad for our producers to focus on while engrossed in the day-to-day opera­tions of farms. However, it’s paramount that producers under­stand that our consumers extend us a social license to operate our farms when displaying confidence in purchasing our prod­ucts. Furthermore, producers have a social responsibility to protect the brands of our largest consumers because they are often built on a specific beef product. Think about your favorite place to order a burger. They are very in tune with what their consumers’ preferences are and they purchase a lot of ground beef. We have a responsibility to this organization to protect their interest in the beef industry if we want them to continue purchasing beef raised and processed in the United States. If we are unable to do that, they will undoubtedly find an alterna­tive product, either through development or marketing, that the consumer will demand. With this responsibility in mind, veterinarians can work with producers on continuous improve­ment of animal welfare practices in order to maintain that con­fidence from consumers.

Concluding one’s educational career and venturing into the arena of employment in the veterinary profession can be a daunting, yet exhilarating apex in life. Unfortunately, our personalities often set us up as achievers who assume the perfect job must be obtained in order to be professionally fulfilled. The perfect job probably doesn’t exist. This paper will discuss navigating the first year of employment following graduation from the perspective of the recent graduate. Suggestions will be made about how to reverse the traditional job interview and use the opportunity to find a position that fits your goals best.

Consumer interest in production agriculture continues to prompt the beef industry to develop tools to increase the accountability of management practices. The purpose of this study was to implement an industry-driven assessment tool, which with the documentation of current practices within the commercial cattle feeding industry, could be used to establish benchmarks for animal health, welfare, and food safety. An assessment tool developed by veterinarians, animal scientists, and production specialists was used to objectively evaluate key areas of beef cattle production including but not limited to animal handling, antimicrobial residue avoidance, cattle comfort, and food safety in feedyards.

Being driven to serve a clientele on large-scale production farms.