F A C I L C I I E S N E E D E D, N E A T S REOUIRED AND TCME N E C E S S A R Y FOR

Transcription

1 38, F A C I L C I I E S N E E D E D, N E A T S REOUIRED AND TCME N E C E S S A R Y FOR T E A C H I N G I D E N T I F I C A T I O N O f C U T S AND G R A D I N G NATHAN S. HALE U N I V E R S I T Y OF M A S S A C H U S E T T S I n t h a t the time was too short t o p o l l all of you gentlemen, regarding methods and f a c i l i t i e s used at your i n s t i t u t i o n s t o teach i d e n t i f i c a t i o n and grading work, it i s going t o be necessary t o confine my t a l k t o t h e methode which w e have t r i e d t o follow a t Massachusetts, I hope that in the discussion which i s t o follow, you gentlemen w i l l bring out some of t h e methods used a t your i n s t i t u t i o n s. Knowledge pertaining t o t h e identifying and grading of t h e v a r i ous meat cute deserves special a t t e n t i o n when formulating o u t l i n e s f o r meat courses offered a t our schools and colleges. I n planning t h e course outline for our meat8 work a t the University o f Massachusetts, every e f f o r t has been made so t h a t even t h e poorest o f our students will have an understanding of the meat cuta and t h e i r r e l a t i v e value when t h e semester's work has ended. Why do we place such emphasis on the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of meat c u t s? As Animal Husbandry men you undoubtedly have studied and evaluated your meats courses. Perhaps some of you w i l l agree with my evaluation. I personally have f e l t t h a t the slaughter p a r t of a meats course has a value i n that it familiarizes students w i t h anatomy i n addition t o developing slaughter technique. The c u t t i n g p a r t of t h e meats course i e of value i n t h a t t h e student has had a chance t o see the animal a l i v e, as a carcass, and broken down i n t o wholesale cuts. These three steps a r e excellent t r a i n i n g exercises f o r our future show-ring judges. It teaches t h e boys t h e necessity f o r breeding animals t h a t conform t o a type which i s desirable f o r meat production. The a c t u a l r e t a i l cutting i n s t r u c t s t h e student a6 t o numbers of cuts obtained, location of each, s i z e, shape, and other c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s, It i s t h i e last point t h a t should be of value t o any person i n any walk o f l i f e, i n that the majority of us consume meat nearly every day. Many of our graduates w i l l not be packing p l a n t workers o r show-ring judges, but they should be meat conewners. If meat i d e n t i f i c a t i o n i s important, then w h a t f a c i l i t i e s a r e necessary f o r i t s i n s t r u c t i o n? Probably the most desirable f a c i l i t i e s would include a c u t t i n g room where each student could prepare most of the r e t a i l meat cuts. This i n addition t o a library room where charts, pictures and descriptions were available would do much t o teach a student t h e r e t a i l name, carcass location, and value of each r e t a i l cut. Good l i b r a r y material can be obtained through t h e Live Stock and Meat Board, and various packing companies. If t h e f a c i l i t i e s f o r c u t t i n g a r e n o t a v a l l a b l e, t h e n it i s necessary t o ask a r e t a i l meat dealer i f you might use h i s shop and show case a s a l a h r a t o r y. This measle smaller groups and mre t i m e on t h e i n s t r u c t o r ' s p a r t. The new "serve yourself" type o f meat market should a i d in giving t h e

2 39. student a chance t o practice on his own and might also serve a s an additional classroom. Care must be taken t h a t t h e l o c a l markets a r e using t h e same 'term* inology a s those used at the national contest. A freezer may a l s o be of value i n t h a t meat cuta could be frozen f o r future use. This is especially so when c e r t a i n cuts a r e going t o be used for a grading exercise a t a l a t t e r date and t h e number o f animals available f o r slaughter i s limited. With f a c i l i t i e s available, w h a t meats should be required? To teach i d e n t i f i c a t i o n requires t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Veal; which may be provided e i t h e r through carcasses t h a t can be cut i n t o r e t a i l cuts i n t h e laboratory o r a counter of.meat i n t h e r e t a i l s t o r e s e t aside for t h e c l a s s t o examine. I n addition t o these r e t a i l cuts it i s necess a r y t o have carcas8es and wholesale cuts that a r e of d i f f e r e n t grades. These may be obtained through a slaughter course, i f volume i s great enough, o r through a branch supply house, Occasionally it m y be possible t o get d i f f e r ent grades of wholesale cuts through v i s i t i n g several markets i n t h e town t h a t handle meat of d i f f e r e n t quality. Classes of pork carcasses a r e very d i f f i c u l t t o obtain except a t a pork packing plant, while lamb and beef classes a r e nearl y always available a t a branch supply house. A l i s t o f t h e r e t a i l cuts and classes judged a t the National Contest6 can be found i n the l a t e s t edition of Professor Ziegler's book "The Meat We Eat. Time? I t i s very d i f f i c u l t t o estimate the amount of time which would be adequate f o r t r a i n i n g students i n i d e n t i f i c a t i o n and grading. The a b i l i t y o f students i n assimilating such information v a r i e s greatly, also t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of f a c i l i t i e s and meat products w i l l be am important f a c t o r. A t Massachusetts I have attempted t o teach i d e n t i f i c a t i o n by assemb l i n g representative meat cuts for display a t the end o f each c u t t i n g laboratory. The students then study them, a f t e r which I spend time discussing each cut with them. This e n t a i l s about fif'teen minutes t i m e. Then a t t h e beginning of the next laboratory period, the f i r s t t e n minutes a r e spent i n conducting a quiz on t h e cuts discussed a t t h e preceding lab. This needles t h e student i n t o studying the r e t a i l cuts on h i s own, i n addition t o focusing more a t t e n t i o n on h i s own laboratory work. I n addition, t h e f i n a l exam includes a section on the identifying of 25 t o 40 meat cuts. Due t o our i n a b i l i t y t o have a l a r g e enough v a r i e t y of carcasaes, on hand a t any one time, grading ha8 been a problem. We a r e able t o show some difference o f carcass grade during t h e semester's work, but i n order t o provide additional training, a course has been arranged f o r the second semester which involves eight four-hour labs for t r a i n i n g i n meat judging and grading, This work 28 done a t a packing plant 2 5 milee away. Additional t r a i n i n g i n the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of meat cute can be obtained by placing students with competent butchers during t h e summer vacation period. I n summary, I f e e l we can j u s t i f i a b l y say t h a t f a c i l i t i e s and a v a i l a b i l i t y o f meat a r e our l i m i t i n g factors i n teaching the grading and i d e n t i f i cation of meat cuts. I f it i s going t o be neceseary t o depend upon r e t a i l food market8 and branch houses, then mre t i m e w i l l have t o be devoted t o t h e project by t h e i n s t r u c t o r i n charge.

3 40 CHAIRMAN BULL: discussion. Thank you, M r. Hale. The paper i s now open f o r PROF. HRATZ3,ER: One thing I would l i k e t o get out of these two papers. What i s t h e opinion o f t h e group on t h e amount o f time spent i n coaching a meat judging team? The length and t h e amount of time t h a t we t a k e i s quite limited, and I would l i k e t o hear a l i t t l e more expression on t h e amount of time that w e t h i n k i s necessary, both c u r r i c u l a r and also extra-curricular, Tom Ziegler made a remark about t r a v e l i n g on t h e road with t h e meats judging team. I t i s the combination of t h e two, t h a t I a m i n t e r e s t e d i n g e t t i n g t h e re-action of t h e group on. I have come t o t h e point, at Michigan State, where I have t o l d t h e b y e t h a t we w i l l t r y t o have two teams next year; one team w i l l go t o Kansas City and then they a r e through. Then t h e boys who come i n a t t h e end of September and f i r e t of October a r e e l i g i b l e t o make t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l team. f know t h a t I would l i k e t o have a winner as well as t h e next one, but I sometimes doubt whether it i s worth t h e e f f o r t, p a r t i c u l a r l y not only i n c l a s s, but out of t h e c l a s s. Bob Bray was checking on one of my students who planned t o go t o Wisconsin f o r graduate work, Bray said he could t e l l by h i s t r a n s c r i p t t h e quarter t h a t he w a s on t h e l i v e s t o c k judging team and t h e quarter he was on t h e meats judgingteam; t h e grades went down. You cannot help i t, a t least n o t a t Michigan S t a t e. CHAIRMAN BULL: Now I think w e are g e t t i n g i n t o t h e meat of t h i s discussion, a t least judging from some of t h e remarks which I have heard following these meat judging contests. Can anyone e l s e add t o i t? PROF. BuTI;ER: I t h i n k one thing, that c l a s s, i s t h e f a c t that closely, that sometimes I think t h a t I would l i k e t o g e t i n t o t h i s discub6ion. cause6 us t o have t o spend so much time on t h e grading w e t r y t o divide t h e grades down and pinpoint them 80 our c l a s s e s are p r e t t y controversial. I t h i n k i f w e picked up something where t h e experts disagree, we are expecting a l i t t l e too much t o ask these boye, t h a t have not had a great deal of t r a i n i n g, t o determine differences or t o grade down t o a t h i r d of a grade. It would be necessary t o have so much t r a i n i n g i f we used t h i s one grade syst e m, j u s t l i k e t h e U.S.D.A. brands the carcasses. If we needed more grades, it seems that t h e U. S. D. A. would use more grades. I would l i k e t o see t h e c l a s s e s very placeable, and then r a t e t h e boys on the way they see those c l a s s e s and the importance they get from d i f f e r e n t p o i n t s. CHAIRMAN BULL: Anything f urther? PROF. ZIEGLER: M r. Chairman, I recommend t h a t a committee be appointed again, and t h i s be brought up on t h e last day. L e t us g e t t h i s thrashed out as t o what we a r e going t o have t h i s year. I f you would appoint t h a t committee t h i e afternoon they could have t h e report f o r tomorrow afternoon, so t h a t we could a c t on it and see what we w a n t t o do. CHclIRMAN BULL: Anything f u r t h e r? PROF. BLACK: I do not propose t o speak on t h e p u r i t y code o r whatever you men w a n t t o call it, b u t t h e r e i s one thing I have been thinking about f o r a long t i m e, and t h a t i s t h e announcing of r e s u l t s and the evaluation of

4 d i f f e r e n t teams i s over-evaluated on one end and under-evaluated on t h e other. For instance, J i m H i l l i e r r s team wins t h e contest a t t h e Internationa l. Their picture, and most j u s t l y so, appears in a l l t h e papers. He i a toasted a t home, The band come8 out t o meet him and he gets all the p u b l i c i t y i n t h e world. Bob Bray wins a t Kansaa City. The thing I am g e t t i n g around t o eventually i s t h i s : J i m H i l l i e r ' s team wins and he beats some other team by t h i r t y points a very small margin. Maybe one o r two of t h e men have made a very high score i n judging; yet they have no recognition whatsoever, simply because they were not on the winning team. I f e e l t h a t a more representative evaluation could be given, and t h a t a greater response would be received *om our meat judging work i f we would do something toward revising t h e evaluation. Perhaps that might mean issuing c e r t i f i c a t e s t o t h e boys a s a good judge o r an excellent judge, o r something along t h a t l i n e. Perhaps we cannot break it down i n t o t h a t f i n e a category, but I think t h a t a b e t t e r method of recognition of meat judges can and should be given. If t h i s committee i s going to make some studies, I would l i k e t o see them make some studies along t h a t l i n e, because I do not f e e l that a bay whose team can score 2550 points has student6 who a r e much better judges than another team t h a t will l o s e and go i n t o second place by I would l i k e t o see a b e t t e r recognition. CHAIRMAN BULL: That i s referred t o t h e Committee, since I l l i n o i s has never been t h a t close t o f i r s t place. PROF. COWAN: I: have only coached t h e meats team two years, but I would l i k e t o second a few thoughts t h a t have been brought out here t h i s a f t e r noon. F i r s t of all, t h i s business o f l a b e l l i n g these carcass88 w i t h j u s t one grade I go f o r it. That i s t h e way the U.S.D.A. does it and I l i k e it p a r t i c u l a r l y f o r t h i s reason: Many of the smaller schools do not have the f a c i l i t i e s o r cannot get the f a c i l i t i e s t o do a r e a l job o f t r a i n i n g boys i n grading carcasses. We can, with the use of b u l l e t i n s, s l i d e s and i l l u s t r a t i o n s, and perhaps by what we can show them i n a few branch houses, bring o u t fbll grade differences, but t o t r y t o s p l i t the grade or get t h i r d of a grade differences would be a very d i f f i c u l t undertaking f o r t h e emaller schools t o do. I l i k e Ken Warner's approach t h i s morning t o t h i s problem. He opened The s i t u a t i o n, gentlemen, i s t h a t i n t h e up by saying "What i s the situation?'' past we have had only about nineteen schools represented in any one of our meat judging contests. T h a t w a B an increase over what we have had i n the past, and t h a t was a t t h e International l a s t year. But t h e r e are t h i r t y schools represented here today a t this Conference. Well, why i s t h a t s i t u a t i o n a s it i s? What can we do about it? Maybe I am wrong on t h i s, but I believe t h a t t h e reason t h e s i t u a t i o n i s as it i s i n other words, only about half of the schools t h a t have anything t o do tsith meats a r e represented i n these contests primarily because of a lack of f a c i l i t i e s t o teach grades and grade differences and t o do a good job of teaching meats judging, I would j u s t l i k e t o get t h i s thought across. The more complicated we get these contests, t h e more d i f f i c u l t it i s going t o be f o r t h e smaller schools t o ever get i n t o these contests and t o t r a i n boys 80 t h a t they can compete and do any kind o f a jot, of grading carcasses.

5 42. but I am a l l f o r t h e grading idea do not get me wrong on t h a t t o s p l i t it down i n t o three, I think there i s j u s t too much difference o f opinion, and I c e r t a i n l y second Tom Ziegler on t h a t idea, and I would l i k e t o see something come out of a coaches' meeting some time, o r some constructive approach made some time t o enable us all t o do a l i t t l e b e t t e r job of meat grading, o r carcass grading, and so on. The f a c i l i t i e s f o r UB, anyway, a r e very limited. mistake. CHAIRMAN Buu: Only l a s t week our meat coach, M r. Johnson, made a He graded a steer carcas8 low choice, which I graded middle of choice. We have j u s t two minutea f o r discussion on this question. PROF. E. C. STILLWELL: M r. Chairman, we have t o do p a r t of our work by remote control. A s you know, a great many of our grades a r e d i f f e r e n t from youre, p a r t i c u l a r l y i n beef and pork. But no matter what i s done with the arrangements of the contest, I f e e l t h a t our boys get enough out of t h i s cont e s t t o make the e f f o r t well worth while regardless of where we might happen t o stand. On t h e other hand, i f the competition is kept uniform and without being too complicated, f'rom a s e l f i s h v i e q o i n t, it would make it a l i t t l e I would not s a y easier, but it would make it a l i t t l e more comprehenbit sible, p a r t i c u l a r l y when our grades a r e lower, p a r t i c u l a r l y on beef. PROF. ZIEGLEB: M r. Bull, i n conjunction with this identification, I do not know how many of you men are familiar with the f a c t t h a t Mrs. R o l l i e r down i n Washington, D. C. makes wax models. We use wax models. We invested $ i n eighteen models p r i o r t o t h e war, and l a s t year f o r t h e Farm Show a t Harrisburg, I had t o have two made. I hate t o t e l l you what she charged me f o r those. It w a s $38.00 f o r two, a prime r i b r o a s t and a club steak. People who see t h e cuts wonder why t h e meat does not spoil. A t the Farm Products Show, women would come up and say, "Oh, a r e they r e a l? " They would take t h e i r f i n g e r and get a l i t t l e o f the colored wax off of it; t h i s shows you how similar they a r e t o t h e a c t u a l cuts. If you can afford something l i k e t h a t, I certainly recommend them. You have t o keep a close t a b on them. We have already l o s t three of o u r models because people l i k e t o pick them up. But they come as near looking She buys t h e c u t and make8 her l i k e t h e actual cut of meat as anything. model from it. I w i l l have t o admit t h a t down i n Washington, D.C. they have some peculiar cuts. She made t h e Boston s t y l e cut, center cut shoulder. T h a t i s w h a t she gave me and w e had a l i t t l e trouble identifying it. If you t e l l her exactly what you want and send her t h e pictures, p a r t i c u l a r l y i n color, she w i l l duplicate it. I t works out very well. models. We also use color s l i d e s f o r our i d e n t i f i c a t i o n along with the wax

6 43. CHAIRMAN BULL: Thank you, Tom. The next topic fits in very closely with a suggestion which Mr. Hillier made earlier in the afternoon. Phil Anderson, take it away. PROF. ANDERSON: Ladies and Gentlemen, I am more or less like the newly married man who put his hand on the shoulder of hie bride and said she was forced upon him, in regard to the topic that I am to discuss here this afternoon. When I was made a member of the Program Committee, I thought I was all through. ###