South Dakota beef cattle producers have the opportunity to enhance the profitability of their product.

Eric Iversen, livestock development and marketing specialist for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture, says the South Dakota Certified Enrolled Cattle program allows producers the opportunity to put their cattle into different kinds of programs currently available in the cattle market.

The program is basically the first phase of the South Dakota Certified Beef program, which was initiated by the governor’s office.

Currently the enrolled cattle program has 115 licensed producers and about 15,800 head of cattle. Twelve processors and three marketers are licensed in the South Dakota Certified Beef program.

With a limited number of processors in the state, all of the enrolled cattle are not able to be processed in state yet.

“But until we have that infrastructure in place, we have that marketing arm in place to take beef to the marketplace, there’s still a fit in the enrolled cattle side,” Iversen said. “(It’s a way) for other companies to use that as a procurement tool to fit their claim-specific (programs).”

He also says natural markets may eventually be a good fit for South Dakota Certified Enrolled Cattle. The South Dakota Department of Agriculture is currently working on rules for a natural beef program. They hope to have those rules in place by summer.

If South Dakota cattle producers are interested in becoming South Dakota Certified, they first need to be beef quality assurance (BQA) certified and have their premises registered.

Then they need to contact Iversen at the South Dakota Department of Agriculture at (800) 228-5254 for an application. They can find more information on the program by going to the Web site at southdakotacertifiedbeef.com.

Once a producer has completed the application, an official from the program sets up a time with the producer and comes out to do an on-site evaluation. While completing the evaluation, the official will make sure the producer understands the requirements of the program and then offer him a license agreement to sign. That will then license the producer to use the South Dakota Certified Enrolled Cattle words and trademark.

“The on-site review is really to satisfy a USDA requirement. We’re on pace to get our PVP (process verified program) approval through USDA so these cattle if they end up in the processing plant and exported to Japan they will meet the Japanese bovine export verification program,” Iversen said.

Cattle enrolled in the program need to be tagged with electronic ID tags sometime between birth and weaning. The producer then needs to submit the electronic compliance information.

Producers will need to renew their license every year. The department will conduct a planned audit once a year to keep them in compliance.

Producers recently had the chance to learn more about the program in Pierre, S.D., at the Governor’s Beef Industry Conference Feb. 12.

They will have more chances to learn about the program coming soon at regional workshops throughout the state.

“These cattle are still age and source verified, validated by a third party entity, which is the Department of Ag. They are good candidates to enter claim-specific beef markets outside of South Dakota,” Iversen said.