Ruben on the Road: WT meat science program helping students with hands-on experience

CANYON, Texas (KFDA) - Ruben heads to West Texas A&M University to speak with the meat science program and learns about the hands-on experience students get.

Ty Lawrence, professor of Animal Science and director of the Beef Carcass Research Center, says the facility harvests cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

“We’re training students on humane and sanitary harvest procedures, grading of those animals and then fabrication of those carcasses into primal, sub-primal and retail cuts, then we offer those to the public in this store,” said Lawrence.

It’s a continual process. Lawrence says the students are learning the entirety of the process once the animal is brought to a harvest location.

Helene Keiser, a student in the meat science program, says the program has given her so much.

“I never knew that it would be such an opportunity to come to a place where I can have so much hands-on experience as an undergraduate student,” said Keiser.

She says last Thursday, she got hands-on experience and learned how to harvest cattle and be on the dirty side of the kill floors. Being able to have that experience every day at work builds so much knowledge for the meat judging team and eventually when she wants to go into a professional career, Keiser says.

“We focus on community education all throughout the industry from the cow, calf operator, the rancher, the cattle feeder, all the way to the end consumer,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence says they want to be the go-to resource for all things meat science, not only for the Texas Panhandle in the larger region, but for the entire country.

Keiser says she comes from Nebraska, so every single 4H and FFA contest she had was at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

“So coming down here, especially the first time I got to tour and walk through the meat lab, I was just blown away by how amazing the facilities were, how new with the technology and updated everything was and the resources they have to give us a quality education,” said Keiser.