The natural beef business is founded on the idea of providing food products that are an alternative to commonplace and are inherently high quality. A brand that is built on trust of the company and its suppliers to produce food products using specified raising practices that measure up to what the consumer desires and believes to be best for family and planet. In 1989 the company wrote a mission statement that said: By understanding our customers we will lead in the profitable marketing of natural and organic products using ecologically focused principles. The fundamentals that Mel Coleman and his family focused on in 1979 upon founding the company was that the product needed to be safe it needed to taste good, it needed to be good for you and it needed to be raised right. At the urging of Mel Coleman USDA created the Natural classification of beef in 1980 making Coleman the first USDA certified Natural beef producer. Today Coleman natural foods represent a group of the nation's premier meat and poultry companies. The red meat division is made up of a slaughter plant in Limon, Colorado, a fabrication plant in Denver, Colorado and a slaughter and fabrication plant in Childress, Texas formerly known as B3R Country Meats. The company has grown from a beef company to include pork, lamb, bison, poultry, sausage and prepared foods. All species raised without antibiotics added hormones on an all-vegetarian diet. From the beginning Coleman has had a managed process that was source verified and traceable through the Pre-Approved supplier and affidavit program. Under current UDSA guidelines the definition of natural says it "Contains no artificial ingredients. Minimally processed". As more consumers differentiate the products within natural category one would think that USDA would adopt a stricter standard. One reason being that claims vary between brands. The next change coming into focus in the beef business is recognition of organic raising practices. USDA regulates each aspect of raising and processing meat products. Organic practices are verified through third party certification. Coleman currently accepts animals certified by any certifying agency recognized by USDA. The current procedure to enroll cattle into the Coleman program includes the Pre-Approved supplier form required by USDA that indicates the producer has knowledge of the protocol to raise natural animals for the Coleman program, followed by the affidavit that verifies that the protocol has been followed on a specific set of cattle. If the animals are raised to slaughter weight at a feedlot separate from where the cattle were born the feedlot operation is educated to understand the natural raising protocol and is audited annually to assure procedures are being followed. In a nutshell animals never receive antibiotics, therapeutic or non-therapeutic injected or administered in the feed or water. No added hormones or synthetic growth promoters injected, implanted and/or administered in the feed or water. 100% vegetarian diet...no animal by-products or animal fats; no poultry litter. Treated animals identified and removed. Recently certain retailers are requiring third party audits to back up claims that are being marketed through the grocers. One document that is being requested by the auditors is a standard operating procedure. It is suggested that producers take time to set down and write out a simple statement of their operating procedure. This will prove to be beneficial in the event the producer is asked to explain how they verify the raising practices on their farm or ranch. Also becoming more important is a good identification system. There are several animal ID systems available. Each one has its own recording system that accompanies it. Information that will be most beneficial to Coleman will be the same information being sought after by USDA. The main difference being a definite recorded dated to indicate the age of the animal and the fact that it has or has not received an antibiotic. The system that is the most attractive to Coleman at the present time is a tag system known as Animal Profiling International, LLC. This particular tag has read and write capability at or near the same cost. The difference being the animal carries all the needed information within the tag. To get more details contact Bruce Hoffman, who is the president of that company. (See the speaker for details.). In that Coleman is a beef company they purchase slaughter weight cattle. This is accomplished through a network of feedlots and farmer feeders. Coleman exposes cattle offered as calves or yearlings to its cooperating feeding companies and secures a contract from those individuals for the cattle as they reach slaughter weight. Roughly 40% of the cattle that Coleman slaughters come from retained owners. Coleman is usually securing prospects and contracting cattle six to nine months in advance of slaughter. The newest thing on the block is animal welfare. As consumers are becoming more aware of how the food supply is managed and regulated they are also more interested in how the animals are raised and cared for. To maintain and grow a niche market it is important to determine how to understand what it is that the consumer is looking for and define methods to supply them with the information. One way of doing this is through auditing certain criteria that the consumer is most concerned with. If the reader is interested visit Animal Compassionate Standards to read the latest draft of the Animal Compassionate program that Whole Foods is launching. Beef supplier animal welfare audits will serve to strengthen integrity by doing the right thing. (Being an open book) The focus will be: Cattle handling practises Nutrition, health and well-being. Facilities Documents and Records Farmer Feeder and Feedlots Rangeland and pastures. Automatic Failure Issues. Following is a form that is used for this purpose. The notes have not been deleted to help clarify the auditor's rationale.