Howdy! Day three here on the OSU Midwest Agriculture Tour, and we were up bright and early to travel to St. Joseph (Joe), MO to tour Triumph Foods, Green Dirt Sheep Dairy, and Monsanto Field Plots. Sounds like an eventful day huh?!
First stop on the list, TRIUMPH! Wowza, what a place! Triumph is a large scale slaughter and meat packing plant for swine. Touring this place was such an amazing opportunity and I have a feeling it will be the highlight of my trip. Now, as a student interested in animal sciences and management, the processing of market animals has always been one of my interests, at OSU I was allowed the opportunity to watch and assist in the processing of steers during the Steer-A-Year program this past year. As a high school student I also raised market hogs so I really had a good idea what the industry was like, but never before had I seen it on such a large scale.
I honestly had no idea what to expect at Triumph, but I was very eager to get the inside tour! First we met with our tour guide, who also was the number one employee left in the company, who was very passionate and willing to be guiding us through the company. After getting “all frocked out” as I like to call it; a hair net, hard hat, lab coat, and booties, we were off to start the tour! Windows down the main hallways were overlooking the factory floor, allowing us to see the workers on the line in each different part of the conveyor belt line ups. It was amazing to see how efficient and well the employees worked, and the entire 15-20 minutes we stood there we saw little to no laziness, negligence or mistakes which really is amazing considering the industry at hand.
We worked our way through packaging, box making, labeling, mailing, storing, marinating and the break room before we finally arrived at the start of the line. I really appreciated the fluidity of the process, cleanliness of the outfit, and the dedication to the task at hand. As we started from the holding pens and worked our way to the processing tables it was amazing to see each and every step in the process from euthinization to preparing for USDA certification.
Triumph foods was a really incredible place to tour, and I honestly would be ecstatic to do an internship or possibly a job with them. Unfortunately we were unable to take photos at this facility but the memories are worth it all.
After touring Triumph, we journeyed to a Sheep Dairy by the name of Green Dirt farm…. yep that’s right, a sheep dairy! This was one of the stops on our agenda that I really wasn’t too sure about, thinking to myself that sheep dairies are very unique, but also extremely strange. I tell you what, I went into it as open minded as I could! First we went out to the field to check out the flock.. yes, of sheep! And not only did we learn about the grazing sheep, we also learned a ton about herd pretecting dogs; honestly I had no idea that they were even a thing anymore, nor that they would be exceptional at their jobs. We were shown the milk/cheese room at the dairy, and unfortunately did not get to see it functioning, however we did get plenty of samples of Green Dirt’s products. It was extremely interesting to me that the parlor of a dairy sheep was almost identical to a diary cow parlor, just on a much smaller, modified scale. This was mind blowing to me that they had automatic milkers for such small animals!
So I’ve decided that the only kind of milk for me is milk from the cow… Boy was the cheese tasting a rude awakening for someone who is generally a picky eater. BUT I can live to see tomorrow AND tell you that I at least tried it! One thing I gathered from the tour is that the milk of a sheep takes very much like the milk of a goat! 
Lastly, we made the trip out to Monsanto’s corn and soybean field plots to learn a little more about the crops and what Monsanto does. It was amazing to learn that corn to be combined grows until it is mature, is self watering, and dries when it is ready to. What a crazy bunch of info huh? I really enjoyed being around the soybeans because it allowed me to really look at the difference between a GMO and a non GMO, fortunately, the only difference were the fact that one set of plants is darker, and has less damage by insects.
I really had a great day seeing things you wouldn’t really see on the PNW and am very fortunate to have had the opportunity. Stay tuned for more blog updates from just another woman in agriculture and thanks for listening!
