Regardless of the size of operation, producers can learn more about the legal and economics of direct beef sells through a new online course launched by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.
Tiffany Lashmet, JD, serves as an agricultural law specialist with the Department of Agricultural Economics, and says the idea for the course material started developing during the pandemic when extension agents were asking for more information for operations interested in direct-to-consumer beef sales.
“It became apparent there was a definite need for education about the business side of selling beef direct,” says Lashmet, who is based out of Amarillo. “Our focus really is on the legal and economic issues about selling beef directly to the consumer. Whether you’ve got, five cows or 5,000, many of the key concepts are the same.”
There are a number of things from a legal perspective that producers need to consider.
“One thing you have to figure out is how you want to sell your product and where because the answer to that kind of dictates where you can get cattle processed and what type of facility you need to use, if they have to be state or USDA inspected,” Lashmet says. “Risk management, labeling and insurance are other things you have to think through.”
These topics and more are included in an online course.
In addition to Lashmet, Davey Griffin, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension meat specialist and professor in the Department of Animal Science; and David Anderson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension economist for livestock and food product marketing and professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics are instructors for the course. They have presented the course in person eight times, and through participant feedback, saw the need to create the online course option.
In addition to the regulation and financial information presented, animal science topics will be discussed.
“If you’re going to be raising the cattle and beef to offer to the public, it’s important to understand quality and yield grades,” Lashmet says. “There’s a big difference between the taste and how you prepare a ribeye and a locomotive muscle, for example. We’ll talk about things like aging, the difference in dry aging vs. wet aging, as an example.”
A certificate of completion will be available at the end of the course.
Participants will learn:
• Legal considerations for direct beef sales.
• Economic considerations for direct beef sales.
• Permitting requirements.
• Marketing avenues.
• Labeling considerations.
It is presented in three modules:
• Farm to Plate.
• Legal Considerations.
• Economic Considerations.
Funding for the course is provided by the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center. Additional resources related to direct beef sales and available for no cost are the Where’s the Beef? Handbook and Where’s the Beef? Video Series.
“The online course has the benefit of including Dr. Griffin’s farm to fork section, which is not included in any of the other resources,” Lashmet says. “The online does contain a good amount of the same content as the handbook, but a lot of folks learn better with someone vocally teaching the material versus just reading it.”
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