The programme was officially launched on 15 June 2016 and includes training and auditing for animal care, biosecurity and environmental stewardship alongside on-farm food safety practices within the cow-calf and feedlot sectors.

According to Cecilie Fleming, chair of the producer-led VBP+ Transition Management Committee, "being a VBP+ registered producer enables beef operations to showcase the good production practices they commit to on their farms".

It also "enables producers to publicly demonstrate their commitment to responsible stewardship of both cattle and resources".

VBP+ is an expanded version of Canada's Verified Beef Production on-farm food safety programme.

Work began in late 2013 to expand the programme to include production practices validation in all areas of the beef production supply chain. Like the initial VBP programme and like Ireland's Origin Green programme, VBP+ is voluntary and industry-led.

Again like the Origin Green programme, which audits over 45,000 beef farms, accounting for over 90% of Ireland's total beef output, VBP+ has demonstrable and credible threshold levels producers must achieve to become, and maintain, registered status on the programme. This progressive, audited program promotes continual improvements at the beef farm, ranch and feedlot level.

Fleming thanked those beef operators who have embraced and supported the evolution of the program into VBP+: “Expanding the VBP+ program gives beef producers another tool to credibly demonstrate that the beef industry is listening and responding to changing needs of its end users,” she said.

The VBP programme began in Canada's Quality Starts Here programme, an educational initiative started by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to help the beef industry move toward "the highest beef quality in the world".

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