Direct beef sales have skyrocketed across the country, and the  offers an online course to help cattle producers explore this avenue of selling their beef.

The Where’s the Beef?: Legal and Economic Considerations for Direct Beef Sales three-hour online course is designed for cattle producers, ranchers and others interested in direct selling. It’s an abbreviated online version of the popular Where’s the Beef? program that is presented in person at various locations throughout the state. 

Small group of light brown, dark brown and black beef cattle in a field
The online Where’s the Beef?: Legal and Economic Considerations for Direct Beef Sales course provides beef cattle producers important information on selling direct to the consumer. (Michael Miller/Texas A&M AgriLife)

The course is designed to provide information that will allow participants to expand beef sales by learning about legal and economic considerations related to selling beef directly to the consumer.

The online course will be available for $50 for the first 100 registrants and $75 thereafter. It can be found on the AgriLife Learn site using the product code AGEC-CO-032.

“Several hundred people have already participated in the course in person and 100% of them said they would recommend it to a friend,” said Tiffany Lashmet, JD, AgriLife Extension agricultural law specialist with the Department of Agricultural Economics, who is based in Amarillo. 

The course is being offered online since many people interested in direct beef sales cannot attend an in-person program or one might not be offered in their area.  

About the direct beef sales course

Online course instructors are Lashmet; Davey Griffin, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension meat specialist and professor in the Department of Animal Science; and David Anderson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension economist for livestock and food product marketing and professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. A certificate of completion will be available at the end of the course.

Participants will learn:    

  • Legal considerations for direct beef sales. 
  • Economic considerations for direct beef sales.
  • Permitting requirements.
  • Marketing avenues. 
  • Labeling considerations.

It is presented in three modules:  

  • Farm to Plate.
  • Legal Considerations.
  • Economic Considerations.

Funding for the course is provided by the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center. Other AgriLife Extension resources related to direct beef sales and available for no cost are:

  • Where’s the Beef? Handbook.
  • Where’s the Beef? Video Series.
  • Floating Vimeo Video