OF MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT 1N A MEAT LABORATORY

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1 91. PROCEDURE FOLLOWED FOR M A I N T A I N I N G A COMPLETE INVENTORY OF MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT 1N A MEAT LABORATORY Unless one i n t e r p r e t 6 the t i t l e o f t h i s paper t h e hard way, it sounds r e l a t i v e l y aimple. The word materialo covers a multitude of s i w. I have assumed equipment refers to the non-perishables used i n the meat laboratory; f o r example, knives and saws. On the other hand, I have taken a t e r i a l s t o r e f e r t o the perishable products t h a t pass through t h e laboratory in eupplying experimental and c l a s s material. Equipment a8 in our laboratory a t I l l i n o i s is quite easy t o follow. I n f a c t, we could hang our eaim and knives on the rack each n i g h t and have a complete inventory each evening with l i t t l e e x t r a trouble. Bowever, where there i s more equipment furnished, that is knife s e t s for the students, e t c., it might be w e l l t o have a complete inventory of equipment a t t h e beginning and end of each semester. Here it might be w e l l t o issue numbered equipment t o students, I n f o m a t i o n from o t h e r i n s t i t u t i o n s v e r i f i e s my idea t h a t borrowed equipment i a harder t o keep in hand than that used by etudents i n the labora t o r y. Large equipment such as hog dehairars and band saws shouldn't be e a o i l y l o s t. \.Ji42!2 these remarks I w i l l dismiss the p a r t o f the t i t l e termed "equipmen t", Keeping exact count of meat even i n d o l l a r s and cents hao long been a b i g problem. Thio is brought about by several fkctors. M e a t is sold by the pound both wholesale and r e t a i l. However, since Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Kelly do n o t l i k e t h e i r steaks the same thickness, it i s hard f o r t h e butcher t o merchand i s e his steaks as weighing 1 l b. and 4 ounces as the grocer does canned goods. The fanner hasn't cooperated very w e l l e i t h e r i n producing a l l c a t t l e of exa c t l y t h e B a m e s i z e and shape, However, maybe "Mother Nature" has a hand i n that as i n t h e housewife's desires. Thus, t h e butcher has a demand f o r c u t s o f meat o f d i f f e r e n t aizeo and shapes from a product which lacks uniformity. I n t h e bank d a i l y operation muat check t o the l a s t "red penny" before the c l e r k s can make t h e i r dash for the afternoon e w h o r round of g o l f. In the grocery store where the grocer deals i n boxes o r cans he can check t o the l a s t box. However, t h e butcher has been and is hunting f o r a method o f chocking h i s steaks, r o a s t s and clmps t h a t i s more simple than t h a t t h e army use6 i n checking i t s 876,526 pairs of "khaki trouser6 M I ". Most r e t a i l s t o r e s, chain stores o r w h a t have you check t h e weight o f meat which comes i n t o the store and t h i s checked weight on the b i l l goes t o t h e bookkeeper. The cash r e g i s t e r records the meat products separately &a customers f i l e out the front door. The by-products, tallow, bones, e t c., are s o l d wholesale and t h i s cash r e c e i p t a180 ends up with t h e bookkeeper. Thue, they have a t o t a l expense account for incoming meat and a t o t a l s a l e s account f o r the out going. None of the operatoro t o whom I have talked have

2 92. more than a monthly inventory. I n other words, they too have no way of checking the disappearance of one t h i n e l i c e of ham or one s t e a k from a side of beef; however, a side of beef o r quarter of beef would probably show up on the ledger sheet. Both Krogere and A. and P; managers t e l l me they attempt t o h i r e honest people and i f any one become6 "shady" the man is suddenly unemployed. However, a l l help, even the manager, must enter and leave the s t o r e by way o f the f r o n t door, so they do have that much of a check on each employee every evening. For successful operation of a n experiment s t a t i o n salesroom it seems the following plan m y be about as accurate as possible f o r handling meat. This would require the four i t e m s which follow: (1.) slaughter record; (2) saleeroom income record; (3) monthly inventory; and ( 4 ) record of wholesale meat purchased.., A slaughter record should be kept showing species, number s l a u a t e r e d, l i v e weight, cold carcass w t and the bookkeeper should a l s o have a l i v e weight sale price o r wholesale carcasb price. A salesroom income record could be obtained from the cash r e g i s t e r tape, the charge account, s l i p s, and the c r e d i t slips or checks &om the saleo 02 by-pmducte. A monthly inventory o r one every four weeks is necessary in order t o have a reasonable check on your supply. Thie should be done on t h e b a s i s of wholesale cuts of f r e s h beef, pork and lamb. Add t o t h i s an inventory os" cured meats, prepared meats, and meat i n cure and the inventory should be fairly complete. The last item, record o f a l l wholesale cuts purchased, should be normal routine of any meat market. With these statements I have t r i e d t o prosent a plan which may be quite old and w e l l known. However, since I can think of no way t o improve what industry does now I w i l l continue with t h e r e s t of t h e butchers in hunting f o r a new and more f a u l t l e s s plan. CHAIRMAN ANllERSON: Thank you, M r. Johnson. We have had aiscussions l e d by those from the E a s t and by those from the South. The discussion leader t h i s time is international, and I want our good friend, Mr. S t i l l w e l l, from Ontario, t o lead t h e discussion this time. MA. S!lTI;LWELL: M r. Chairman and Gentlemen: I n l i s t e n i n g t o Professor Johnson's paper on t h i s subject I wondered how we handled these things i n our i n s t i t u t i o n. Fortunately for myself we do not handle any money except f o r the s a l e of hides gnd &ts. However, I believe that t h e i n s t i t u t i o n s that have a r e t a i l business a r e doing more f o r t h e i r students than we do. But due t o circumstances that we have heard about i n various places, we d i d not want t o g e t complicated like our fyienda out in Colorado. So we s t a y out o f the r e t a i l business. I r e a l l y believe, though, that the student who gets some work other than i d e n t i f i c a t i o n, cutting, and so on, the a c t u a l s a l e p r o f i t s from it.

3 93. I do not think there is very much that I can o f f e r t h a t w i l l be o f any help with regard t o taking inventory, and so on. I think possibly a l l of you gentlemen have had more experience with t h a t than I have and I should be glad t o hear f r o m some of you with regard t o t h i s subject. I am sure that some of you have something t o o f f e r. I should l i k e t o take t h i s opportunity t o g e t a MR. WM!: l i t t l e advice from the e l d e r s i n the meeting. I am sure a l l of you a t one time o r another have had some experience, good o r bad, with disposing of beef, pork and lamb which you were processing in the laboratory, Xn my short experience I have already run i n t o that problem, and I should l i k e t o g e t some ideas on how t o get around some of the l o c a l butchers i n town, some of whom a r e g e t t i n g on t h e i r high horses and threatening a l l s o r t s o f d i r e things, 1 do not expect they w i l l ever materialize b u t I should l i k e t o get some ideas on j u s t how t o handle a s i t u a t i o n like t h a t., MR. HAZAIXUS: We have that solved a t Colorado A. and M. We do not butcher anything u n t i l I know where it i s sold. We do a l l the processing, cutting and wrapping f o r the locker, and it i s sold on the market basis. It i s not a r e a l bargain f o r t h e m. They a r e getting t h e i r money's worth. However, we j u s t put a notice on our b u l l e t i n board that we have beef, pork o r lsmb for s a l e, i f we have any f o r sale a l i v e and hope t h a t we w i l l get i n some outside slaughter. We always plan ahead how many c a t t l e we w i l l need for the quarter, how many sheep, and how many hogs, and we t r y t o take i n t o consideration the a c t u a l number of customer work coming in and t h a t which we have t o s e l l. W e a r e not bothered with the customer work because it goes right back t o tho cuetomer, and anything we have we do not butcher u n t i l we have a d e f i n i t e order. I have a l i s t already s t a r t e d for next fill of people who want a l l three. They a r e not going t o be caught short. I am n o t going t o be caught short. I was i n about 1940 u n t i l I caught on. MR. ADAMS: W e have t h a t problem out there quite frequently. We a r e killing quite a Zew hogs f o r the divisional s o i l laboratory and Dr. Etanson's breeding experiment, and our quickest method of moving pork i s t o put a notice in our weekly b u l l e t i n t h a t goes t o a l l the faculty and employed personnel of the university. They in t u r n c a l l our o f f i c e and we keep a l i s t t h e sam a6 you do a t Colorado A. and M. I am very seldom caught with no one on the l i s t f o r it and i n t h a t way instead of competing with t h e l o c a l butcher shops I s e l l t o them and make them think it i s a bargain. I think t h a t is the e a s i e s t way. MR. HECK: Last week we had an in-service t r a i n i n g extension conference a t t h e University of Arkansas. M r. Howard Ford, from Ohio S t a t e, worked w i t h me on t h i s and he s e n t me quite a l e t t e r. He s a i d he would l i k e t o have a carcass o f beef t h a t weighed 100 pounds t o the quarter; a n o t b r half o f carcass t h a t weighed a l i t t l e l e s s, about 90 pounds, and a a i d e of veal. It weighed 60 pounds. Then we k i l l e d a om11 hog because we had sold a l l the large pigs of l a s t all. It dresoed 125 pounds. So we ended up with 765 pounds of meat on our handa and the program was l a s t tlednesday and Friday. It took six profesoore f'rom the University and one locker operator t o handle a l l t h a t meat and they were glad t o get it. We sold the beef a t about 52 or 53 cents a pound.,

4 94. The in-service training, which i s r e a l l y the college, paid for the processing of the meat f o r the use of it. I n other words, we had a demonstration and we cut up the beef f o r the country a g r i c u l t u r a l agent8 and the home demnstration agents. For the t v o programs probably 125 attended and they were a d to have the meat there for t h e i r use. A year ago a t t h i s time it was a considerable problem t o merchandise the meat, but knowing a l i t t l e i n advance t h i s year I went ahead and arranged f o r the s a l e o f it before it came in. By the way, we ordered that beef out of Kansas City. It was K. C. beef, a s they c a l l it down i n our areas. He did not have enough t o go around. So I j u s t c a l l e d the locker operator and I t o l d h a t o order another side of beef. The reason we had the 180 pounds of beef there was because we d i d not have enough t o take care of a l l o f our customers. Instead o f having them angry a t us we just go ahead and buy some more good beef and make them think they a r e getting a bargain, MR. STILLWELL: Our bursar and our dining h a l l a r e very generous with us. I f we have any special day8 when we require carcasses, whether they a r e from our own herds and flocks, we can slaughter them, and since we feed about a thousand in the dining h a l l and about three hundred i n the c a f e t e r i a, we can handle quite a b i t, b u t we do not have any money t o handle it. That i s a l l done through the bursar and we buy e i t h e r the l i v e animal o r the carcass and the meat is processed and s e n t t o the dining hall. MR. RECK: We did not have much money t i e d up in that e i t h e r. That 125-pound dressed pig carcass belonged t o the University. The r e s t of it waa a l l handled through the locker operator and not a single penny ha6 come out of my pocket o r the University. I n other words, it i s a l l a business operation handled by the locker operator. We work very closely with the frozen foods industry i n our e t a t e, One good way o f having an e f f e c t i v e meat program i s by s e l l i n g meat t o theae faculty and c i t y and urban locker patrons and giving t h e m good meat and merchandising it through them. We do not have much kick from the r e t a i l markets l i k e llroger and Safeway. MR. I(EMP: Before I came t o I l l i n o i s I was a t Kentucky. We had several Deep Freeze lockers associated with the meat laboratory, and we found out t h a t i f we had a surplus of meat a t any one t h e which could not be sold i n the sales room, we could fyeeze it and keep it for two o r t h r e e months or two o r three weeks, and people would come i n and ask f o r meat and we would say t h a t we had some frozen meat. We would probably have t o take a l i t t l e markdown on it o r maybe we could s e l l it f o r the 6ame price, but it ma a s a t i s f a c t o r y means o f disposing of the surplua. E l. TYLER: You w i l l find i n some areas o r s t a t i o n s where you a r e located, in t h e smaller towns p a r t i c u l a r l y where you may have maybe one o r two l o c a l butchers, a t f i r s t they a r e r a t h e r antagonistic to your program, but I think if you explain the program t o them and i n v i t e them in and give them a c l e a r picture of j u s t how much meat

5 95. yourre handling you can get them on your side very e a s i l y. O f courae, when we get i n t o l a r g e r c i t i e s we do not have t h a t problem because they very seldom a r e so close t o us that they r e a l i z e there i s any infringement on t h e business they may have. MR. STIIUJEU: Is there f urther dimussion o r questions? C fairman ANDERSON: Thank you, M r. S t i l l w e l l. The l a s t d i s cussion on our pr0gra.m tonight has been assigned t o a gentleman who f r o m my acquaintance w i t h him and experience I know w i l l do a bang-up job o f it. Our friend, Mr. Francioni f r o m Louisiana. ###