Meat of the matter: UI lab gives students a wide array of experience

Feb. 17—URBANA — Nicki Adolph's time at the University of Illinois Meat Science Lab has prepared her well for the future.

Specifically, a future at Cargill's case-ready facility in North Kingstown, R.I., where the Mount Carroll native is set to be an operations management associate after graduating from the UI.

"I started in the meat lab as a freshman," Adolph said.

"I knew I wanted to be on a judging team, either meat or livestock, but I decided on the meat-judging team, and then I was kind of hooked from there," she said.

Adolph's array of experience at the lab, which has included working the kill floor for all three semesters she's been there, cutting pork and beef, and working the sales floor, is common for those in the program.

Meat lab manager Megan Huelsmann and assistant manager Caroline Downey each come from meat-science backgrounds.

Huelsmann grew up in St. Rose before coming to the UI, where she earned an undergraduate degree in 2021 and then a master's in ag leadership, education and communications in 2023.

"I was actually home (during graduate school) running the family business, selling farm-to-table meat," Huelsmann said. "Raising animals, taking them to a butcher shop, working at the butcher shop, marketing and selling, and doing all the customer relations there."

Downey is from Putnam and previously served as a meat-judging coach at Iowa State, where she earned a master's degree after graduating from the UI in 2020.

"As an ag kid growing up, you don't always really realize that the meat industry has a lot of opportunities," Downey said. "I think it's really important that we have people that are advocates for that and can teach and train students to go out into the meat industry, because it's such a large part of the livestock industry."

'We like our meat science'

Illinois' meat-judging team — which Downey now coaches — is where many of Adolph's favorite memories have come from.

"We like to say that we kind of trauma bonded, jokingly," Adolph said with a laugh. "But no, it's really kind of like a niche interest, and so the kids that we do find and kind of all have the same interests here is kind of unique. We're kind of nerds, we like our meat science. We think it's cool and important."

Students — even those who aren't necessarily seeking careers along the same lines as Adolph — can compete on the team for one season, which spans a calendar year. Adolph competed in 2022.

"We offer quite a wide range of opportunities for those students to get involved in if they don't necessarily want to learn all of the processes that it takes to run a facility but they are interested in the science," Downey said.

Judging against the likes of Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas State, Iowa State and Ohio State is just one way for students to gain meaningful experience in the school's program.

Learning the ropes

Live pigs and cattle arrive at the lab at the lab at 1503 S. Maryland Ave. in Urbana before students take them through the entire process of arriving in the sales room.

"We take live animals from the farms right here on campus," Huelsmann said. "We go through the slaughter, fabrication, processing and then right to sales all right here in this building. It's a really great opportunity for students to kind of figure out what they enjoy."

After going through the kill process, the carcasses make their way through room-sized coolers that take the meat down to about 30 degrees and can fit around 80 hogs.

From there, students take the meat through butchering, whose steps are aided by new machinery such as a new injector that helps with brining certain meats.

"It's just a process, and once you kind of have that in your mind, that what we do here is just a process, that comes pretty naturally, pretty easily," Adolph said.

A range of offerings are available on the sales-room floor, from the lab's well-known sausages to ribeyes and strip steaks to more unconventional items, such as hearts and uteruses.

Adjusting the menu

Huelsmann and Downey tinker with recipes here and there, sometimes in an attempt to develop a new item or fulfill a special order for a customer.

Spices are mixed by students on-site, another job for those looking for a different type of experience.

"We really kind of stepped out in the advertising of positions to more students than just animal-science students," Huelsmann said. "We've got a couple of hospitality management students in here right now working on sales and best sales practices. We've got animal-science students who are wanting to learn more about meat quality, meat fabrication, things like that."

In regard to custom orders, Huelsmann and company are happy to help if somebody needs an extraordinary quantity of pork chops, for example, or has a need for an item they don't usually sell.

But if a customer is calling ahead to reserve two steaks, they're probably better off stopping by during sales hours; 3-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

"A lot of times, we see the same customers week after week, and we're always seeing new customers come in as well," Huelsmann said.

In addition to the lab's loyal customers, Huelsmann and Downey are branching out with a slew of marketing initiatives geared toward new faces.

They offered "brat club" subscriptions during the holiday season — look for those to open up again during the summer months — and were offering heart-shaped ribeyes and bacon roses for Valentine's Day.