my spring break

Spring break is typically the time of year when college students hit up the southern states/countries in search of warm weather and hot sun.  Luckily this year, many students didn’t have to travel far from home as this March has been one for the record books weather-wise. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about the weather at all or the fact that spring break exist, I am simply sharing my sob story of how I spent my entire spring break: thesis-izing (yes that is a word I totally just made up). 

So what exactly does a thesis entail??? Answer: lots and lots of information of course!  First there is the title page, and as you may have guessed this was the first document I completed.  I have been saving each component of my thesis as a separate word document to enhance my writing experience and data space on my computer.  Next there is the acknowledgements portion.  This is the time to thank all of those who have been involved with one’s grad student career:  family, friends, colleagues, professors… you get the jist.  I tried not to make mine read too sappy, but there were a lot of emotions flowing when I wrote that part!!  From there, the table of contents follows, and then by the introduction, which is basically a statement of purpose, or why the research was done.   The next portion has probably been the most fickle part of my whole thesis-izing experience: the literature review.   This component can be compared to a giant book review.  I have a few topics that I focused on: history of US beef fabrication, tenderness, alternative fabrication, and international market opportunities.  With that being said, I have spent hours in the library and on my computer looking up past manuscripts, books, and articles on these topics.  I say this part has been fickle, because it has been challenging and frustrating to write, yet I have enjoyed researching the topics and have vastly increased my meat science knowledge.  Currently I am at 15 pages for this part of my thesis….including my sources, or bibliography haha.

Now we get into the heart of it all: the actual research, how it was conducted (materials & methods) and what the results (manuscripts) were.  The materials and methods portion is a very detailed description of how the materials were collected, measure, analyzed, etc.  This was by far the easiest part to write, and probably the reason why I have over 20 pages!  Too bad the other segments of thesis-izing were that easy!

The next and most significant portion of a thesis is the manuscripts.  For my particular thesis I will have 5 manuscripts; I have 2 done and 3 to go!  Go Me!!  A manuscript is a short write up (10-20 pages) of the actual research.  Each manuscript contains an abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, implications, and tables/figures component (if desired).  These documents are typically submitted to scientific Journals for publication, and are thus included in future thesis and literature reviews.

If you can’t tell I am currently riding the high of scientific writing or am losing my mind due to lack of sleep. I am currently at 55 pages and counting.  My goal is to have the final copy of my thesis to my advisor by the end of April, and revisions made by the end of May.  With this timeline I can defend my thesis (I will explain this in another blog) in June and graduate in August!  With that being said this is probably going to be the busiest/craziest/fastest summer of my entire life.  And I must admit, I am quite excited for it to get here :)

march madness

I love March Madness.  The Cyclone win last night was absolutely amazing and solidified my deep and abiding love for the NCAA basketball tournament.  However, I only love March Madness in reference to basketball.  These last few weeks of my life have been quite mad with chaos.  It's hard to believe that this month is past the half way point:: I don't know where the time has gone!  And according to my color coded calendar, my time in Lincoln is further limited from off-campus meetings and trips to Iowa.  I guess "time truly does fly when you are having fun"!


This past week the University of Nebraska hosted the National Meat Animal Eval contest.  I was a member of the ISU MAEC team and was pumped that I was able to help out with the contest this year.  Wednesday I spent a majority of my day at the Dunlap Salebarn taking pictures of livestock and students competing; probably qualifying as paparazzi.  After an amazing steak dinner prepared by the Harrison County Cattlemens, Michelle (a fellow grad student at UNL) and I headed up to Dennison for the evening.  After a few short hours of sleep we rolled out of the hotel and into the Tyson plant to transfer tag numbers to carcass id.  I have to admit, I do not miss being in the packing plant before the sun comes up AT ALL!  But we were able to get our job done within an hour and were back on the road by 6:30 am.  Needless to say yesterday was a looooooong day and my nap in the afternoon was greatly appreciated :)


With today being Friday, this afternoon I am headed back home, all the way to Cascade.  I have not been home since Christmas break, so needless to say I am very excited to head east!  Tomorrow afternoon I have my first of four bridal showers.  It should be a great day spent with family and friends.  I heard through the grape vine a few shower games are planned--I don't really know what to think about these games, but I guess I better get used to it!


Then early Sunday morning I head to Ames for the Midwest Academic Quadrathlon contest.  Before I explain exactly what this is, I need to make it clear the Academic Quadrathlon was probably the funnest competition I have ever done!!!  The contest invites teams from major Midwest universities and they compete against one another in four areas of Animal Science: lab practicum, written exam, oral presentation, and quiz bowl.  Because of this, the contest is extremely competitive, and probably that is the reason why I enjoyed the contest so much). I volunteered to run the meats station, a part of the lab practicum portion, and have been busy this week making the test and gathering materials.  


The AQ contest is held in conjunction with the Midwest ASAS meetings which are annually held in Des Moines. This year I have the opportunity to present a poster on part of my thesis project. I must admit my poster looks pretty sweet and I am excited to share with people the data we collected and how we analyzed the results.  Between designing this poster and writing a final report for the Nebraska Beef Council I have gained motivation to get this thesis wrote and done.  Something about sharing information to producers/consumers/industry personnel about changes in beef production to improve profitability/comprehension/yields thrills me.  Annnnnnnnd with that being said, this kid has got a literature review to write.  So until next time, go STATE!!!

calving update

This last week has been an absolute blur!  And for that reason, I must apologize for the absence of blogging.  Since my last blog, lots of babies have been born and Chasen has been doing a fantabulous job of sending me pictures of most of them. 

This little girl was born in the field.  It was a nice sunny day, so I guess she decided it was time. Chasen found her while feeding the cows in the afternoon and then brought her up to the barn so she could get out of the wind for the night.  The next morning he went to check on her and she was no longer in the pen with her mom.  She had escaped (somehow) underneath the calving pen gate and was chilling in the cooler/wash room--Chasen thinks she is a natural show heifer in the making haha.  I think she is just a curious adorable little thing!

Now I am not trying to be biased, but this is probably my favorite calf born yet!  I absolutely love love love blazed face cattle and am so pumped that this little girl is 1/2 Simmental!! I can't wait to see her when I go back to farm this weekend! 

The final calf picture is a picture of a special calf I named Leroy.  During his gestation, Leroy did not have enough space to develop his front leg properly.  So when he was born Leroy had trouble standing on his front leg and Chasen needed to "prop" him up on a bale so he could get to his moms udder.  Which by the way, calving pens are the coolest thing since sliced bread.  They are so helpful during the calving process, whether that be pulling a calf, or making sure they get their first drink full of colostrum.  Anyway, now that I got my sales pitch in for calving pens, Leroy now has a splint, with HOT PINK tape, on his front leg to help stabilize his pastern.  He is able to get around pretty good by himself, but we are going to keep him up at the house until he gets a bit stronger.  I wish you could see his face in this picture because he is about as cute as the blazed face calf....but not quite :)

Aside from calving and business on the farm, I myself have been quite a busy girl.  Last week I traveled to DC for the Farm Animal Integrated Research (FAIR) conference.  I had such a blast and hope to share my trip and conference experience with you sometime later this week. This is a picture of all of the grad students I got to work with at the conference.  They were all great and I learned so much from all of them!!  The picture was taken at the Agriculture Research Station in Beltsville, MD.  It was quite windy when we took the picture so you can find me by looking for the hot mess with wind tossed hair, haha.  Or at least that is how I like to refer to myself in this pic :)

in like a lion

Although the weather was quite all right yesterday (in Lincoln we reached 45 degrees) I still think an appropriate title for yesterday is "in like a lion". The beginning of March means different things to different people.  To me it is a sign that spring is soon to come, half of the semester is left, and now for 2012 it marks the date for new regulation in how fresh meat is sold in the US.   After yesterday nutrition labels are required on ground beef, pork, and poultry packages.  Nutrition labels are also required and on or near major cuts of meat and poultry sold in supermarkets (ribeye steaks, pork chops, chicken breast, etc.).  The theory behind this regulation is to confirm for consumers  "that lean meat and poultry products are an important part of a healthy balanced diet."    With this regulation consumers will be able to make their purchasing decisions based on the amount of calories, total fat, % protein, etc. available in fresh meat products.

It will be interesting to see if the required nutrition labels will have an affect on consumer purchase patterns for items higher in fat such as ground beef and pork (100 calories from fat out of 190 total).  Nutrition labels have been required for processed meat products such as bacon, ham, and chicken nuggets for years.  These products contain a higher amount of calories, calories from fat, sodium content, and cholesterol when compared to that of fresh meat.  But due to their convenience they have been able to survive caloric criticisms.  Nonetheless, with nutrition labels present on all meat products, hopefully consumers will become aware of how nutrient dense meat products are.  There are 29 lean cuts of beef, pork, and lamb that contain the same, or less, amount of fat found in a chicken thigh.  Meat has also been noted as the best way to satisfy hunger due to the high content and energy value of protein.  It is also just plain tasty!

In other news, this weekend I am headed to the Farm Animal Integrated Research (FAIR) conference in Arlington, VA.  I am going to be a graduate student recorder for the conference and must admit I am PUMPED!! The FAIR conference objectives for the 2012 meetings are to demonstrate the importance of animal agriculture to society and the impact of the global market place on animal agriculture.  Either way I am sure the introduction of nutrition labeling of fresh meat will be a topic of discussion.  And I will be ready to report when I return to the Midwest!

growing impatient

Here we are on the 27th of February, and we only have 5 calves on the ground!!    Needless to say I am growing quite impatient.  I love calving season!  It is such an exciting time on the farm.  New presents are "unwrapped" everyday, and Chasen does a pretty good job of sending me picture messages of these presents.  But as you may have guessed, I have only got 5 picture messages this month; extremely disappointing!!!

By now I thought we would have four times the amount of calves on the ground. The 30 heifers Stevenson Farms bought earlier this year were "due" at the end of February.  Only three of those mamma's have calved, and that was at the beginning of last month.  So either someone wrote down the wrong expected calving date, or these ladies want their calves to have the same birthday, or worse yet, they are waiting for three feet of snow/mud to be on the ground.  For Chasen's sake, and for the health of the baby calves, I hope it is option A.  

This weekend I stayed out in Lincoln, so it has been awhile since I have seen the cows.  But in my head, they all look like these mammas below: ready to pop at any minute!

I took that picture last year, and it cracks me up every time I look at it!  Another picture that cracks me up is the one below.  I mean, how often do you see a bovine sticking its tongue out at you??  But I guess I should get used to it.  I feel like all the calves are going to come out this way, taunting me with how long I had to wait until they arrived!!

judging a book by its cover

Over the last two weeks I have had the pleasure of over-wrapping close to 300 steaks for two different retail display trials we are running.  In fact I have gotten so good at this particular job, I feel I should be called Justine the Over-wrapping Queen, heck I would even settle for Justine the Over-Wrapping Machine.  Regardless of this respectable title I have fauxly created for myself, through the weeks I have developed an appreciation for the way beef is packaged and sold here in the United States.

There are several ways beef is packaged however I am going to share with you the three most common packaging systems in retail.  It is important to remember regardless of the advantages and disadvantages, all packaging systems provide a means to keep product safe from microbial contamination and allow consumers to visibly assess product quality.


In over-wrap systems steaks are fabricated from beef subprimals and placed on a styrofoam tray.  A soaker sponge (or Meat Maxi as I like to call them) can be placed between the steak and tray to capture purge loss during display.  It is important to understand purge loss is not "blood".  It is the extrusion of sarcoplasm which is rich in Myoglobin, the protein responsible for meat color.  Regardless of whether or not the Meat Maxi is present, trays are then over-wrapped with an oxygen permeable poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) film.  This film, unlike Saran Wrap, allows oxygen to interact with Myogolobin promoting the development of a bright cherry red color, or "bloom".  Over-wrap systems are the most economical way to package meat.  For this reason, over-wrap systems are common in small grocery stores were personnel fabricate steaks on site. However, due to the permeability of the over-wrap, product will lose color integrity and turn brown within 3-5 days.  Although brown colored beef is safe to eat, it is not eye appealing to consumers.

Another type of packaging system is Modified Atmosphere Packaging (often called MAP because of the lengthy and lofty name).  This type of packaging system is commonly used for ground beef.  Product is placed in a well tray, with or without a Meat Maxi.  There is enough "head space" within the package to modify the atmosphere (crazy, right??).  At UNL, we use a mixture of 80% oxygen gas, and 20% carbon dioxide gas.  This high concentration of oxygen allows the product to bloom.  Where the addition of carbon dioxide provides antibacterial properties, and promotes blooming.  Other gases used in MAP systems include: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and nitrogen gas.  Independent of the gases utilized, this packaging system is very attractive for consumers.  It also allows retailers to create different label designs for different product.  With this type of packaging system, expense is significantly higher, and shelf space is decreased due to the bulky package.  MAP packaged products have an expected shelf life of 10-60 days, depending on the gases utilized.

The final way product is commonly packaged at retail is via vacuum packaging.  This type of packaging system can be observed with the marinated pork tenderloins from Hormel.  In beef products, vacuum packaging is not typically utilized at the retail setting.  Often at the packing plant whole primals, such as the Ribeye Roll, are vacuum packaged and distributed to retailers for steak fabrication.  Product is placed in a protective, impermeable bag and has all of the air sucked out via a vacuum.  The open end of the bag is then sealed preventing exposure to oxygen.  Because of the lack of oxygen, vacuum packaged beef is a purple color.  For this reason, vacuum packaged beef is limited in retail settings; however, once the package is opened, product will bloom immediately.  Vacuum packaging product provides a means for "wet-aging" product and does an astounding job at maintaining product integrity.  Plus, running the vacuum sealer is pretty cool, ha!

Now that you have a basic understanding for meat packaging, take the time to check out packaging systems the next time you are at the grocery store, instead of just product quality.  And remember, just like a book, you can never judge meat by it's package!

ibe 2012

This past weekend provided an escape from the city lights, and was a time for family, friends, and cattle at the 2012 Iowa Beef Expo.  The Iowa Beef Expo is held on the state fairgrounds the 2nd-3rd weekend of February.  Breed shows and sales are during the week, and the IJBBA sanctioned junior show is held on the final weekend.  


Fortunately, none of the mommas decided to calve this past weekend allowing Chasen and I to head up to Des Moines Saturday evening.    I was particularly excited Chasen was able to get away from the farm so I could get my engagement ring back!  Because the ring is so unique we had to design a wedding band, and thus needed to approve the wax before they could create the band.  It looks soooo neat!!  After we picked up my ring we headed back to the east side of Des Moines to meet up with our close friends for supper at Okoboji Grill.  It's so strange how we now catch up with friends monthly instead of daily; I sure do miss those college days! Nonetheless good food and fellowship was shared by all.  To continue a night of meeting up with old friends, we drove to the ISF grounds and congregated in the bull pen.   I had such a good time!!


On Sunday morning we headed back to the fairgrounds for the commercial junior show.  Lacy, Chasen's younger sister, would be showing a heifer we raised at Stevenson Farms.     

In preparation for the show (fitting), it takes lots of helping hands.  First the calf needs to be washed and then dried with a blower.  Similair to blow drying one's hair, it is important to blow the calf's hair in a forward direction (towards the head). This helps make the calf look wider, and gives them an overall smooth look.  Much like a person, after the hair has been dried, the calf's hair needs to be combed.  Hair on the legs is "pulled up" and then sprayed with adhesive - a product comparable to hairspray.  Fitters (Kirn pictured below) then spray white paint on the calf's legs and tailhead.  This step helps the fitter notice hairs that need to be clipped off (which is the next step).  Clipping typically takes the longest time depending on how big of a perfectionist the fitter is.  

Hair is shaved off the animals topline, legs, tailhead, flank, shoulder, etc. to make the calf look its best and hide any imperfections.  After all clipping has been done, the white paint is covered up with black or red paint depending on the calf's color.  A spritz of Final Bloom, a perfumed hair conditioner, is then applied to the calf.  This is probably my favorite step because: 1. it smells amazing and 2. it means the fitting process is over, yay!!!  Now we are off to the showring; it was such a lovely day!!

The heifer weighing 870 pounds at check-in and therefore was placed in class 422.  The fitting process began around 7:00 am and was finished by 10:45-perfect for her class that began at 11:00. The judge was a gentlemen from Oklahoma; and in a class of 12 heifers, we placed 4th!  We were pretty excited about this accomplishment!!

In summary, growing up I was never exposed to the show cattle industry.  We raised feed lot cattle.  In the summer we preferred their hair was gone, and they only got "washed" when it rained.  When I started dating Chasen we traveled to quite a few IJBBA shows.  It was such an eye opening experience for me!!  But through the years, I have learned and experienced that showing cattle is a great way to spend time with family and friends.  And at the end of the day, we are all passionate about the beef industry and raising cattle.  Although I am still learning the ropes to showing cattle (and may never fully understand it all), I am truly loving every minute of it! <3