Nebraska Veterinarian Honored with National Beef Quality Assurance 2023 Educator of the Year Award

Print permission from Nebraska Extension

This year, the Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program was the highlight of the Closing General Session “A BQA Celebration” at the 2023 Cattle Industry Convention.

Since 2009, the National BQA program has utilized the National BQA awards to recognize cattle producers across the nation for their BQA achievements. The program recognizes producers and operations from the following sectors: cow-calf, feedyard, marketer, and dairy. Additionally, the educator award recognizes an individual who has been dedicated to the BQA program throughout their career.

This year, the Nebraska BQA program made a big splash at the presentation of the 2023 National BQA awards winning four of the five categories: cow-calf, feedyard, dairy, and educator. This is the first time in the history of the National BQA awards program that a single state has won more than two awards in a single year.

“It’s a great honor for our state, our producers, and our educators to receive recognition at this prestigious national level,” said Jesse Fulton, Director of Nebraska BQA. “Our producers and educators deserve to be recognized for their commitment and contributions towards BQA initiatives.”

This year, Tom Noffsinger, DVM, was the recipient of the National BQA Educator of the Year award.

“Dr. Tom has been involved with the BQA program since its inception within the state of Nebraska and to this day continues to demonstrate his commitment to the beef industry through his involvement with teaching BQA principles,” said Fulton.

Dr. Noffsinger’s decades of work in the area of BQA has not only been instrumental in spreading the BQA message across the nation, but he has also been an important player in bringing to light beef industry issues and ultimately contributing to successes in those same areas through his dedicated work focusing on low stress cattle handling and animal welfare.

According to many past National BQA Educator of the Year award winners, Dr. Dee Griffin (2012), Dr. Dan Thomson (2015), Dr. Bob Smith (2017), and Dr. Deb VanOverbeke (2022), Dr. Noffsinger has been a major player and supporter of the BQA program since its inception. Prior to state led BQA initiatives, Dr. Noffsinger was a part of a group of veterinarians already working with packers and processors to combat violative residues and injection site lesions plaguing the beef industry. Once state BQA programs came to fruition, Dr. Noffsinger was one of the first “Train the Trainers” in the state of Nebraska and from this position, trained thousands of cattle producers in BQA standard operating procedures and best management practices.

Dr. Noffsinger has long known the importance of BQA is not just checking the box or doing some additional paperwork. He has worked to demonstrate to producers that BQA is the driver that truly influences the health status of our cattle. He credits BQA for being the program that opened the door for him to be able to teach producers.

Throughout his career of practicing and consulting, Dr. Noffsinger would work with those responsible for cattle care to explain the “why’s” of veterinary medicine and how the “why” can influence the quality of beef. Dr. Griffin credits Dr. Noffsinger for being the engine that drove the concept and making the connection for producers, that if cattle are treated everyday of their life in a low stress manner, they would be heartier when faced with immune challenges and less likely to get sick. This reduction in animal treatment would lead to a reduced chance of potential animal treatment residues. This idea led to major changes in the BQA guidelines in 1991 which included “Care and Animal Husbandry Practices”.

Some early BQA demonstrations for Dr. Noffsinger included leading injection site tissue damage workshops. Today, even Dr. Noffsinger says that as he was leading the program, he himself was learning more about how these animal health products caused blemishes and tissue damage.

Dr. Noffsinger believes that a BQA certification training isn’t just a review of material but a gateway to truly educate cattle producers and veterinarians alike. When covering components of a BQA training, Dr. Noffsinger often finds himself continuously elaborating on the “why” of the material in order to keep producers engaged and why the industry needs to follow the BQA efforts.

Dr. Noffsinger credits much of his BQA influence at the national level to being invited as a speaker to industry meetings. Because of much of his work in low-stress cattle handling, bovine respiratory disease management, and cattle lameness prevention, Dr. Noffsinger is often asked to speak at meetings such as Academy of Veterinary Consultants, American Association of Bovine Practitioners, and numerous other cattle industry meetings both nationally and internationally. Using his platform, Dr. Noffsinger preaches the BQA message to attendees and what implementing BQA practices within their operation can do for them.

Working alongside and teaching and learning from industry greats such as Bud Williams, Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Ron Gill, and Curt Pate, Dr. Noffsinger has become a household name in the area of low stress stockmanship. Dr. Noffsinger’s passion for low stress cattle handling has led him across the country conducting low stress cattle handling demonstrations.

As a cofounder and consulting veterinarian for Production Animal Consultation (PAC), Dr. Noffsinger continues to be an advocate for not only the beef industry, but the BQA program. Dr. Noffsinger works with all his clients to answer the question of “why BQA” from a veterinarian standpoint. He has been influential in ensuring his veterinarian colleagues at PAC also understand the importance of the BQA program and low stress cattle handling education.

Dr. Noffsinger is unmatched in both his “boots on the ground” approach to BQA education and his commitment to low stress stockmanship. His exceptional approach to educating producers on BQA principles to a broad audience has undoubtedly served as an example of what a BQA educator should be.

“An educator like Dr. Noffsinger is one many of us young educators look up to. His approach to new teaching concepts and ability to relate the ‘why we do things the way we do’ related to BQA is without compare,” said Fulton. “As a BQA educator myself, I hope I can be half as good as Dr. Tom as I work alongside cattle producers in the field of animal welfare.”