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Nebraska certified beef program is in the works

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture is in the final stages of implementing a Nebraska certified beef program.

Nebraska director of agriculture Greg Ibach says the program, which is called “Certified Beef from Nebraska”, has been under development for nearly a year.

“We have the certification from USDA, so the program has been certified,” Ibach says, “and we have registered a trademark with the U.S. patent office, so we have protected that.”

Ibach says they’re currently working to certify Nebraska packing plants that want to participate in the program. Once that’s finished, he says, promotions of “Certified Beef from Nebraska” can begin, both domestically and internationally.

Ibach says he’s not sure what kind of volumes are attainable through the program.

“When we’re overseas promoting our packing industry and our beef, we’re going to talk about this as a premium program and give it as an option to some of the buyers to augment for some of their very elite customers,” he says. “We’re going to see where it takes us.”

Ibach says for the program to be successful, it must provide producers at all levels with a premium price over the marketplace, “because we believe our product is better and we believe producers that go through this process need an additional bonus for providing these type of cattle”.

AUDIO: Greg Ibach