2/19-22/13

The next few days we worked on improving our technique by taking it slow.  I never realized how much was involved in cutting up meat.  Knowing where to cut to make as much profit as possible was frustrating at times until we understood the different values of the pig.  Once we understood things like the belly (bacon) sold for a lot more than other areas, we took extra care in our cuts.

Slow and careful
 

 

We weren't the only ones in the lab.  A few MSU students worked alongside us for a paycheck.

Though we may have been a disruption, these young people were kind and helpful in showing this old man everything they knew. When the end of the week rolled around, we had an evaluation of all we had learned about cutting pork.  I'm happy to say we all passed and though we are still very inexperienced, we have a basic foundation to build our skills on.  Next week we start on beef.

2/18/13

Today we witnessed beef slaughter, but before I get to that I want to introduce the main people we will be working with.

            Ryan Varner Asst. Meat Lab Mgr.                                                                      Jennifer Dominguez  Meat Lab Mgr.

  

Jennifer was kind enough to allow 11 vets to come and disrupt her lab with a million questions yet showed the patience of a superior manager.

Ryan grew up butchering meat with his father and his skills were extraordinary. The thing I appreciated was his patience, though he deals with students daily we had to test his limits. How he always seemed to have a smile on his face is beyond me.

Now the key player in our instruction was Ms. Sarah Wells.  She had spent a few days with us at KBS but now we were on her turf.  Over the course of our stay on campus she became a very important person in our lives.

Sarah Wells

Back to the beef slaughter.  Today they slaughtered 5 beef cattle.  Now none of us actually participated in the process as we don't have the required skills.  The staff here does everything humanly possible to ensure the animal doesn't suffer unnecessarily.  Though I don't want to get on my soap box these animals were raised for this purpose and I love beef.

The process of slaughter is first the stun followed by the animal being bled out. Then the animal is skinned, gutted, split and moved to the cooler to age before being cut for the consumer.

Skinning

Gutting

Splitting

 It was an interesting morning but now it's back to cutting pork. We will cut this beef next week.

2/17/13

We finally made it to campus and are staying in the Kellogg Convention Center.  It is another top notch hotel with all the amenities.  We've been given meal tickets to use at the dorms.  I have to say MSU's dining facilities are second to none.  We eat breakfast and supper at Brody Hall since it's across from the hotel.  We eat lunch at Shaw Hall as it's close to the meat lab.  These halls have food courts with a large variety of choices.

Our first day in the meat lab....geared up with supplies from JBS...... we are ready to cut something!

We started cutting pork partly because it is cheaper and smaller. Sarah Wells helped walk us thru the basics and allowed us to start cutting. The flash cards we studied at KBS were helpful, but dealing with the real thing is the only way to learn.

Things went well and we were all happy to get some hands on experience after all our classroom work!

2/10/13 - 2/17/13

It is the last week at KBS and of course the most intense.  We are in two training programs. The first program lasting two full days was the ServSafe Food Production Manager Certification.  This certification is nationally recognized and will be just another tool for us to use.

Rita Klavinski  and Jeannie Nichols

This course involved all aspects of food safety.  We covered time and temperature controls of various types of food to ensure the safety of those who consume it. We discussed the different types of foodborne illnesses, the bacteria or viruses that may cause this, and how to prevent them. In all, it was pretty interesting and since a written test was required for certification we all paid attention. I'm happy to say that all 11 of us passed.

Dr. Boreen

The other three days of the week were spent on HACCP, which stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. This certification required 25 contact hrs. with our instructors Dr. Al Boreen and Sarah Wells. Dr. Boreen, among his various duties, helped set up the meat lab and was the manager there until his retirement.  He now teaches this class all over the world.  Sarah Wells is an instructor in Animal Science Department and works in the meat lab teaching at MSU. She will be our instructor when we get there. I have pictures of her when we get on her turf.

HACCP, in general terms, is a plan to ensure the safe production of food products.  The plan involves how and where health hazards may be lurking in the course of production. A flow chart is developed and the critical control points are identified.  Appropriate measures are then made to prevent the risks of food hazards.  That's the basics.........and now we're off to MSU. 

2/7/13

Today was Red Cross CPR and first-aid training.  All of us had been trained before but things have changedsince back then.  The breath to compression ratio and they didn't have portable defibrillators available last time I was certified.

Oliver and Lewis

The instructor had us all demonstrate our skills before we could be certified.  This being Friday, we had our one on one with Tom just make sure everything was going okay. After meeting with Tom we had a free weekend to relax for next weeks classes.

2/6/13

Today we had Dr. Randy Showerman, Dir. of Ag. at MSU.  He shared his knowledge of 4-H and FFA. We talked about a lot of different ag related subjects from beef cattle to corn.  What most of were most interested in was MSU and what we would be doing there. I know after sitting in a class for the last 3 weeks I'm ready for a change.  Dr. Showerman asked what type of recreational things we would like to do and we all gave our input. I'm looking forward to it.                      

Dr. Showerman

Since we've been studying meat cuts, Dr. Showerman had a jeopardy game made up on his power point.  We were split up into 2 teams - MSU  vs U of M.  Since Notre Dame wasn't an option, I went with the MSU team.  The MSU team we had an added advantage of being able to look at a meat chart during the first half of the competition.  I don't know why but the other team seemed to have a problem with this, go figure :)   Anyway we all had a good time!

2/4/13

Today we had Taylor Harrison a student in animal science.  She explained the different breeds of beef cattle and the pros and cons of each breed.  It was interesting, but most of us just want to start cutting some meat.  I never realized how many women were involved in agriculture.  I guess I fell into the old stereotypical thinking.  Farming = fathers and sons.  Taylor grew up in 4-H and showing beef cattle and although this is her last year in 4-H, she remains active in agriculture.  In the afternoon we went to the academic center to learn basic computer skills.  We all have varying degrees of computer skills, some of us plain don't have any. 

2/5/13

In our class today we had Jennifer from the Xerces Society.  Jennifer works in Entomology, the study of insects.  

                                                        Jennifer

Some wondered what this really had to do with meat cutting, but it seems all things related one way or another. We leaned how different insects can be beneficial to field crops and considering feed corn and grain are used to feed cattle, the connection was made.

In the afternoon we visited the manor house here at KBS.  We were given a tour which explained the history of the house and Kellogg family.  We also learned how the property was given to MSU.  On the way out we had to get a photo of the whole group of Vets to Ag. 

2/2/13

Well it's Saturday and usually we only have our group study session, but today we're going to Galesburg Meat Locker. This operation is a little larger then Richland Meats but would still be considered on the small side.  The interesting thing is that they smoke and cure meat.  They do this not only for their own sales but also for other companies such as Richland.
 

        Rigil                                                  Rob                                                           Mark(owner)

It was nice little excursion and most of the guys enjoyed it.  Now I'm going to relax for the rest of the weekend and try and catch a Notre Dame BB game.

2/1/13

Since today is Friday, we had our one on one meetings with Tom and also received our stipend.  He explained the growth of agricultural job opportunities in Michigan and it is very encouraging.  It appears that the meat processing field is on the rise and is projected to continue to grow.  I was already aware of this, but the raw numbers were even more encouraging.

                                                                 Jeff         and            Ralph

In the afternoon we went to the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners.  We were all looking forward to this!  Guys and cars?  What's NOT to like?  Check out some of the cars in these pictures.  If you get a chance to visit the museum, do it.  

                       John

The Vets to Ag staff have been great in working our schedule to make our afternoons more relaxing, and sometimes recreational.  I am still amazed at how welcoming and accommodating everyone has been.  All of our activities (just like this trip to the Car Museum) have been paid for us.  You can't forget people like Jim, at Richland Meat Center, who took time out of his day to demonstrate butchering and to answer questions.

Well that was about it for Friday  I'm behind on my postings, but we've been going over a lot of material which I'll talk about later.

1/31/13

Today we had no guest speakers so it was a review of the material already covered.  We also worked on our meat cuts using flash cards. There are cards for beef, pork, and lamb.  Everyone seems to be getting a handle on it and they have been a good study aid for us.

In the afternoon we drove around the town of Plainwell just to get the lay of the land.  It seems to be a  nice little community.  We also drove past JBS just to see what the plant looked like.  I was a little surprised, it didn't seem big enough to employ as many people as it does.

Everyone seems to be getting along okay with no major flare ups. As some of the guys have families at home, there's bound to be some stress, though they seem to be handling it okay.  Well that's all for today tomorrow we have Tom here and going to the Gilmore Auto Museum for an outing which should be interesting.

1/30/13

Today we had Martha and Day from the Burma Center in Springfield, MI as our guest speakers.  A big population of the workforce at JBS is of Burmese or Hispanic descent.  This being the case, it is important to have a little knowledge of the people we will be working with.

                                                                   Martha

Burma, currently called Myanmar, borders China, Laos, and Thailand and is about the size of Texas.  There has been a lot of unrest and many of the 40,000 Burmese Americans originally came here as refugees. Martha showed a video of the Buddhist monks protesting the army-run government in the early part of the 2000s. As we were watching the video, Day prepared a traditional snack of tea leaves, nuts, and spices which I enjoyed (though it wasn't to everyone's taste).  I found today's class very interesting, as I didn't have a clue about Burma.

                                                                         Day

After lunch we went to Richland Meats.  Jim, who is a 4th generation butcher and the owner, was great.  He gave us a demonstration by butchering a pig.  As this was the first live demonstration of meat cutting, we were all full of questions for him.  He also described the differences between large processing plants such as JBS, large retailers as Meijer and Kroger, and the smaller retail shops such as his.  Overall it was a very informative day.

                                                                     Jim and the Guys

 

Another day closer to going to MSU and then employment.  So as they would say in Burmese, Mang tha (goodbye or good dreams).

I am Oliver Hargrove, a 45 year old Navy veteran from the Detroit area. I found out about the Vets 2 Ag program at a veterans job fair at Piquette Square. I was homeless about a year before entering the program. Since entering the program I've recieved a great insight into the Agriculture Industry.


The Vets to Ag program has opened up several doors and possibilities into careers and education. The agriculture field is fastly growing and in need of qualified workers in sales, research, manufacturing, and  food processing, just to name a few. The staff and students at MSU have been so helpful and caring in their efforts to help us succeed in this program. This is a great opportunity for veterans to get their lives back on track and become productive citizens again.

1/29/13

Check out our living arrangements.  As I said on day one, they have us double-bunked in small apartments, but they are nice and better than what many of us have had.  I cannot tell you enough how great the food has been.   

We have a fantastic view of Gull Lake and many of the vets were hoping for better weather to go fishing.

As you can see, we've got it pretty good. 

1/28/13

After a fairly relaxing weekend, it's back to class (we have a study group every evening after supper Mon. thru Sat. with Sun. being a day to ourselves).  Today's instructor was Dr. Eddie Moore.  All the instructors are from MSU College of Ag so far.  Eddie told about growing up on a farm in N. Carolina and being at Ohio State and the different positions he's held.  He worked with the Clinton administration in D.C. dealing with agricultural concerns.  He was very warm and engaging.  He explained leadership and the qualities a good leader has. Then it was our turn to explain what we thought.

The afternoon was a treat!  We went to the Kellogg Dairy Farm. It is one of the many research centers here.
They have a fully automated milking process. When the cow wants to be milked it walks into a stall and a machine automatically hooks up to the cow.

Some of the things they do are amazing!  In the picture above, you can see they have surgically implanted a port into the one of the cows stomach.  In doing this, they can open the port and take samples. Most of the guys enjoyed the outing and it was an nice break from the classroom.

1/25/13

Today our instructor was Dr. Dorcia Chaison from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources @ M.S.U.  Dr. Chaison developed the REAP  Program ( Retention, Engagement & Academic Performance) which is designed to help students become more successful in their studies. We discussed goal setting, note taking, time management and other related topics. For some of us this was a refresher course, for others it was new material. We discussed what was presented over lunch and many of the guys wondered what this had to do with meat cutting. A lot of the material we will be covering isn't directly related to this field but may be of value as we move forward.  Some of the students think it's a waste of time while others don't.  To me it's very simple, take what you can use and don't worry about the rest. You never know what may come in handy down the road. Once we get to M.S.U. we will get our fill of meat cutting.

After our morning class we all headed to the dining center for lunch. Now I haven't talked much about the food but let me tell you it's fantastic. We have had pork tenderloin, shrimp, steak, stir fry and always a large variety of desserts to choose from ( in later posts I'll have pics for you and of our living arrangements). When we were finished with lunch, Chef Josh Boiser took us through the kitchen. He discussed the way they store and handle meat and other food products. We had some fun with it and the staff here is fantastic.

We finished our day meeting one on one with Tom just to make sure everyone is doing okay and if there are any concerns.  We also receive a small stipend, which for me goes for laundry and smokes(still working on that habit but as Tim McGraw sang I'm not as good as I want to get but I'm better then I used to be).

 

1/24/13

Today was very informative!  Tom Smith explained what was expected of us and what they were responsible for.  After our introduction yesterday, we had a lot of questions.  Some of us were leaving shelters but some of the guys had homes and we were all concerned about what would be the situation after we complete the course.  We haven't gotten a definitive solution to all the issues we were concerned about but we were reassured that our concerns over housing and transportation were being looked after.

Tom worked with us on upgrading our math skills and most of us were receptive to the info. All work and no play makes me a dull boy.  So after study group, me and a couple of my fellow students went to the activity center to shoot some pool.

If anyone has a chance like this, TAKE IT!  I am still so elated to have been given this opportunity.

In the future, Tina and I will be encouraging my fellow resident vets to share their experiences also.  If any of them choose to engage in our blog, you will be told it's someone besides me.  If you have questions please don't hesitate to ask.  This is a fantastic program!

1/22/13

It's the end of day one and what a day it's been!  We arrived around 9 a.m. and got settled into our apartment.  It sure was a step up from my last place, having 3 rooms and a bath.  At 10:30 we all were in the classroom for opening ceremony.  There were speakers from both MSU and WDA (Workforce Development Agency).  It seemed everyone was Doctor this or that, but it was nice to think these people took the time out of their busy schedules to be there for us. It was almost embarrassing how they thanked us for our service.  I really didn't think I deserved all the praise.  We broke for lunch which was great and resumed back in the classroom in the afternoon.

There are two people I need to recognize - Tom Smith, Associate Director of Agriculture @ MSU is our instructor an lead facilitator and Tina Spicer who is are secondary facilitator and acts as our "Den Mother" (though she is younger than I am). This is our original group of seven.  Six are from the Saginaw area and one is from D-Town.

We are expecting four more students next week - two from Battle Creek and two from the D. Tina our facilitator is with us.  It's been a long day, talk to you tomorrow.

Vets to Ag - My Six Week Journey





Joe Braunsdorf

Vets to Ag is an innovative program that started in 2009, in conjunction with Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, to train homeless Veterans to work in a variety of agricultural areas. As you may know Michigan is a leading grower of fruit in the USA and second only to California in diversity of its agriculture. Training includes basic plant and soil science, equipment and workplace safety, equipment operation, integrated pest management, and training for pesticide applicator. Training can be tailored to suit the specific needs of an employer. This cohort is training in meat processing and packaging. JBS out of Plainwell is partnering and guaranteeing jobs to all the Vets that pass through and graduate the program. JBS is the largest meat processor in the world. Let’s just say if you have ever eaten at that place called McDonalds, then you have eaten meat processed by JBS.


This intense 6 week residential program provides the Vet with classroom instruction in the mornings and hands on activities in the afternoons. The first four weeks will be spent at Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) where the Vets ‘buddy up’ and share living quarters with another Vet and spend much of their time in classroom instruction. They have already been working on math, effective communication, study skills, and machinery. The last two weeks will be spent in the meat labs on campus at MSU – getting the real hands on!

A little about me.......In 1979, I was 17 and had just completed high school.  Being young and dumb and in love with my high school sweetheart, I had to figure things out quickly.  There didn't seem to be much to do in South Bend, Indiana at the time.  There just weren't a lot of options for me.  A friend of mine who was in the Air Force convinced me that this could be something I might enjoy.  I went to the local recruiter, and then the A.F.E.S. (Armed Forces Enlistment Services) station in Chicago, and in no time, was on my way to San Antonio for basic training. I finished basic then continued through my schooling in Electrical Power Production, married my sweetheart, and we were off to Lajes Field the Azores, Portugal.

As things go, young love didn't last.  So I finished my obligation and returned to South Bend, Indiana with an honorable discharge, a nice stereo, and no job!  Not realizing back then I could have received unemployment, I picked up work where I could.  I worked and worked and the rest of the time you could find me in the local bars.  A few years had passed when I met a beautiful young lady and we had a beautiful daughter together.  After some turbulent times, we ended up together in her home town of St. Charles, MI.  I was fortunate enough to get a job working for Terra International which is an Agricultural Firm dealing in field crops.  A few years later, we broke up (is it just me or am I starting to see a trend here?).  Anyway, I became somewhat of a vagabond and bounced around the country for nearly 6yrs.  I finally ended up back in Saginaw, MI. and after playing the 'handyman' role for a few years, I heard about the Vets To Ag Program.

One of the Vets staying at the shelter I was at was involved in the early stages of the program and shared the information with me. Talk about being excited!  I enjoyed working in Agriculture in the past. How many people get the opportunity at 50 to start a new life?  I was a little apprehensive because I had some legal problems during my wandering days and although they were 'paper crimes', they were still felonies.  I discovered this wasn't a reason for concern because I did my time and was welcomed into the Vets to Ag program with open arms.  Proving how badly we wanted to join this program, four of us walked a mile in 5 degree cold with a wind chill of sub 0 degrees.  The group of six of us met at the Michigan Works office in Saginaw, MI. at 6 a.m. on Tuesday 1/22/13.

  

Well, that's enough about me for now. Over the next 6 weeks I will be posting my daily thoughts and progress to keep you up-to-date.  Stay tuned!