Beef industry professionals met Tuesday afternoon at the IGP Institute on the K-State campus to announce a new partnership between the K-State Beef Cattle Institute and K-Coe Isom.
K-Coe Isom is an accounting and consultant firm that was founded in Salina. The firm specializes in the food and agriculture industry.
Dan Thomson, the director for the KSU Beef Cattle Institute, said the partnership is important in strengthening the Kansas beef industry.
“Today the importance was to launch an online education program on sustainability for people within the beef industry,” he said. “Whether it’s about animal welfare, food safety, environmental stewardship and how to minimize external cost and maximize income, because if we don’t have profitability, we don’t have sustainability.”
On top of the online program, Thomson said the partnership will also work to put together a beef sustainability knowledge summit.
Thomson said there’s no underscoring the importance of the industry to the state.
“The beef industry is providing direct support through positions, but it also provides $8 billion in cash receipts annually in the state of Kansas,” he said. “It provides county and state taxes to keep our highways rolling as well as infrastructure, but also it provides the local option budget to keep our schools open.”
