Here at Texas A&M, the Meat Science department has been very busy! Not only is this week the first session of our New Student Conference welcoming the Class of 2016, but Beef 101 has been in session since Monday morning!

We like to use the tagline of, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Beef”, and the 40 men and women who attend this three-day program certainly learn everything they wanted to know about beef and more! It is the leading education program for the basics about the beef industry.

While the participants are here, they interact with our faculty, staff, and graduate student instructors. The workshop begins with the evaluation of beef cattle: how cattle are raised, fed, and handled. Later, participants learn about how to grade beef carcasses. The second day is when one of our most popular activities takes place. The participants are given the opportunity to team up in small numbers with an instructor to cut an entire side of beef into component parts.

To finish out the program (along with many other activities), and another one of our favorite parts of Beef 101 is sampling various cuts to demonstrate how the different cuts, grades, and technologies affect the experience consumers have while consuming beef.

If you are interested in attending Beef 101, our next session is December 5-7, 2012. If you are interested in attending, email Dr. Davey Griffin (dgriff@tamu.edu). For more information, visit the Beef 101 website.

Thanks & Gig Em!