Texas is known for its beef cattle industry. Texas Tech University gives students a chance to learn the ins and outs of meat processing and preparation.
On the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, you will find much more than classrooms and dormitories. TTU is home to Raider Red Meats.
“We offer students a real world hands on experience in the meat business from harvesting animals to delivering those products to the customer, and everything in between,” Raider Red Meats Director Tate Corliss states. “From packaging to marketing and learning how to do that process completely.”
Raider Red Meats provides not only the hands on education for students in the College of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources, but there is a retail arm as well.
“What we offer consumers is a high quality, high end experience with our Raider Red Meats,” he adds. “We focus on the top seven percent of U.S. beef and pork which is high choice and prime.”
According to Sales Manager Wendy Woerner, “Raider Red Meats is a premium aged, minimum of 30 day aged, products that is truly going to be an incredible eating experience. We have everything from beef, pork, and lamb and basically every product that you can possibly think of.”
The meat science program at TTU consistently dominates in meat judging competitions throughout the nation. Numerous national championships have been achieved in meat animal evaluation contests.
“We do help them with the product... We also employ a lot of those students while they’re here so they are able to focus on their studies and on their competitive teams,” Tate states. “We’re just extremely proud of those students and a big supporter of our meat judging program.”
This program not only prepares students for jobs in the animal agriculture and food inspection sectors, but other careers as well.
“The phenomenal thing about the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Program is we’re not only preparing students for the meat science industry, but we are also preparing students to go into medical school, law school, and we have students throughout the years that are neonatal surgeons, that are attorneys that are located in communications and PR roles for major corporations for the Dallas Cowboys,” Woerner adds.
At Raider Red Meats, it’s the goal to teach students, sell high quality prime aged beef, and continue the legacy of Texas ag.
According to Tate, “Texas agriculture is part of what drew me into this industry. It’s something I’m extremely passionate about. I feel like agriculture is the foundation of our society. If we can’t have a safe, plentiful food and fiber for our communities, we can’t exist.”
