208 .

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HEAT PACKIIG FOR COLLEGE GRADUATES WITH MEATS TRAINING

Duritq a visit to the Ohio State University campus, Prof. Kunkle in- vited me to diBcus8, with this group, opportunities for college graduates in the meat packing , I accepted gladly, for it was recognized immedi- ately as an opportunity to publicly and collectively ccmpliaent the teaching staffs of a large portion of the colleges supplying men of meats training for our industry. You men have realisticly organized programs in your respective schools which are equipping young men to produce good results in a very com- petitive industry.

As a member of a & Development Department, it has been gratifying to have these well-trained young men come into the organization to pick up a portion of the responsibilities and demonstrate an ability to conceive and carry out industrial assignments. I have been asked to discuss opportunities in the meat packing busi- ness. Specifically, the following areas of application dxlst in our Company. Please understand that I represent Research & Development management in a fair-sized independent meat packing company. We are active in most areas ex- pected, but have not diversified into maw unrelated fields such as our major competitors have.

The Meats or Animal Husbandry graduate who likes to meet people, en- joys broad programs of endeavor in the animal nutrition and general agricul- tural fields, would be very happy to be glaced in what we call the Agricul- -tural Bureau. A large portion of this department's work is of a public re- lations nature and consists of assisting at Meat Animal Shows, judging, con- tacting farmers and Go-operatives,University extension work, etc.

The Feeds and Fertilizer Departments-I_ have a definite potential for your graduates7This is especially so with the advent of the many, many feed additives and the necessity of careful consideration of these items to insure that good customer relations are maintained, Certainly this Department of the major companies cannot be without an experimental fara for testing their own formulations. Here the graduate must be schooled in fundamental nutrition, livestock management, and animal experimentation design.

The proper purchasing of livestock is tremendously important, since 75# of eveiy product dollar is raw material. Poor judgment in this area can be disasterous due to the small profit margins in this business. As you know, in many cases Livestock Buying is the Animal Husbandry graduate's dream. Tremendous strides have been made in in the last decade. This has had its impact on the also. Thus Research & 209

-Development containing Product Development groups has become a necessity to the meat packer, In this new area, properly coupled with Production, Pro- vision, and Sales efforts, the well-trained meats graduate can make tremendous strides for his company and himself. Departments contributing toward in- creased packer earnings are easily discernible and this can be singled out for reward. This, as you bow, is not mere conversation, but is reflected in the increased budgets for these endeavors. We, in our Company, feel that there is no better training ground for managerial personllel in all important company divisions than in the Research & Development Department. The word "training" wds brought out in previous comments. This sub- ject receives considerable attention the meat packing industry as in other modern industries. Currently our Cmpanysupportsdin Sales Training Program and a Supervisory Training Program. Ordinarily the Sales Program is for sales personnel, but we do u8e it for orientation of other new emrployeee. The Supervisory Training bogram gives men such as your graduates actual "doing" experience in the area8 of Production, Quality Control, Provision, Chemical Control, and Product Development. Specific opportunities were pointed out above, However, the funda- mental opportunity for the graduate in industry lies with the attitude of top management toward his training, ability, and value to the Campany. We are quite proud that our Company's management is placing more and more emphasis on the value of the college-trained individual for management positions. Ad- vances in meat chemistry, packaging, and processing techniques have made them even more necessary, Tbe graduate's ability to pick up responsibility and contribute to the over-aU. picture has aided this acceptance. The attitude of the employee is of similar iuportance. He must realize that industry ex- pects him to get results. The college curriculum fundamentally trains a man in logical thinking, based on certain fundamentals. Graduates art typically creative, but all suffer difficulties in bringing assignments to a close and applying what they have learned before proceeding further. These areas of difficulty we recognize and help, trying not to retard the momentum of youth.

It is my personal belief that if your graduates receive some funda- mental training in chemical- principles, as well as the basic curriculum now pursued, he would be of a great deal more value to the packing industry to fill production supervisory needs.

A6 a final suggestion, let me urge you - "DO not allow your CUriC- ulum to etapate". You are currently supplying an additional demand for meat scientists, particularly in Product Develapent. In order to broaden your students' opportunities, sme attention should be given immediately to an in- dustrial option, so to epeak, so that they will be better equipped for pro- duction supervision in the meat packing induatry.

DR. KWNKLE: Thank you, Mr. Burrell, for this very concise and thoughtful suggestionD Now following precedent, I suppose we om$ to give all of you a chance to ask him questions. 1s there aqyone who would like to ask a profound question about perEbnnel management that would relieve his feelings?

DR. NAWA": Bob, I should like to ask this question, What are the opportunities for the tour-year graduates in your department of products and development?

MR. BURRELL: Well, I can make it long or I can make it short. In bur compaw (I know you are all familiar with it) we have a sales manager for the products division. We have a provisions manager for the products division. We have a groduction superintendent for the products divisionb And we have a research technician or a meats scientists for the products division. Tbese four are a connnittee that represents the developent work, the research work, production work, provision work in that products area, We currently have men, four-year graduates from your school and other schools represented here, who are responsible for that products division,

They work with the production men in the plant, They work in the research pilot plant preparing products, studying different types of operations, applyiug research that canes from publications and some that comes out of our own small research effort. Their opportunity is in that arear Theh when they become experienced, but we haven't gotten that far (we are only two years into the program) we Kill rotate them from one product division to another which will broaden their knowledge of the plant I

As these fellows are looked at by the people in the company they are plucked out, and we have already lost three or four of our Very best men to various types of operations and they have been moved up in the organization to other echelons. We are getting their creativeness for research and development. We are training them in a broad base manner so that they are of value for management opportunities later, if they wish them.

DR, SCRWCZ: The University of California, in their food deparkment, has used a scheme that may apply to something that Mr. Burrell has indicated here. They recognize, too, that in the as a whole there is need for more and people with a background of engineering training, but they haven't been able to induce engineering schools to put foods into tbefr curricula. It would mean an- other year probably, So it was proposed there in a plan which they have adopted, but it really has not had time to develop yet, to choose en- gineers who are planning to go Into the food field, They haw completed their B.S, degree in engineering, maybe chemical engineering, and then they come over to the food technology department for one year, and are given certain courses there and learn something about the food iadustry and the applications of engineering there.

The same thing in principle might be applied as far as meats are concerned, where you g.et your engiztaers who want to go into the meats 211 .

industry. Bring them into the meats department for a period of time 0- maybe one year 0- and give them that additional training there on top of their engineering, It will not disturb their curriculum at all, and you could give them another bachelor's degree after the one year period which would be an attraction, too,

It might apply in chemistry also, if you want to pick a chemist out who has a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Then bring him into meats or in our case it would be food technology. He gets another degree and is qualified then to take on this more specialized work.

DRI KUNKLE: Are there other questions?

If not, I should like to unburdenmyself with a little per- sonnel problem. Last year, you will remember, the Personnel Cammittee launched a plan to try to do something to help each other to see if we could not find jobs for students, and so we published this, Perhaps this is my way of sharing with your Executive Committee Chairman the fact that I was not very observant for on the very first page we have an error, We have spelled "livestock" as one word and. the Board prefers to make two words out of it. Then when we sent you these requests we discovered that we had six pages of Ditto material which I am asking Dr. Bluer to share with you so that you will see what has happened. If you will do that, Tam, just get them out on the tablec, I should like to try to explain to you that the original plan provided for this supplement and then in even numbered years we would reprint it in order to bring It all together in one package,

I had visions when we sent you these simple sheets that prob- ably we could put all the errors and all the new mes on one erratum sheet or addendum sheet or supplement and simply stdf it in the mail for you or bring it here and deliver it. But when it took six pages then we began to think about what else to do, and the committee, which is composed of Dr, Doty, Professor Loefel, Dr. Ellis, and myself, has gone to the Board, Ken Franklin in particular, with the proposition that we think perhaps it is worthy to try to improve upon the whole situation. While you are getting these I might just try to explain, so that all of you don't become alarmed, that we tried to list the name, the resident, the birthplace and date, the degree, the college attended, year, employment experience, current responsibility, and finally your primary meat interest. We listed them alphabetically by institutions, ignoring in the case of the university coming first, because we thought the state was the easy way for everyone to find his place in the direc- tory, So we start off with California State Polytech and Clemson, One of the first changes that arrived was when friend Hazaleus said it was no longer Colorado A, and M. College. But, you remember, he has already shared the new name, So that is the reason we have a college name change the very first thing. Now we are listed just exactly the way we are listed in this directory which contains the 120 names, except that there were three or 212 .

four late arrivals and so they had to be tacked on to pages 5 and 6. You don't need to look back there now to Bee who was late. I didn't mean that. (Laughter)

I ought to say that there are 71 nane changes on this Ditto copy that we have listed for good reasons, Twenty-one of them are new people who have been included. Several of the changes were more im- portant. For example, one fellow changed hie birthplace and his birth date, too, on us. (Laughter) The most embarrassing error, of course, after the National Live Stock and Meat Board identification on the cover page was to miss the correct initial of the Secretaxy-General Manager of the National Live Stock and Meat Board.

Wow the question that must be raised with you is what shall be done with these six pages of additions and corrections? Your committee has conferred with Ken Franklin, of the Board, and wishes to present this cornittee recanmendation, Mr. Chairman; namely.

That the Personnel Ccwunittee of 1956-57 reprint the Reciprocal Meat Conference Personnel Directory, parenthetically 88 soon as possible. a. To be composed of the names origiaaJ&f listed as correct or as altered on the Ditto addendum now distributed among you. b. Institutions to be listed alphabetically by proper name or by state.

c. Representatives of each state are qualified by having direct contact with meat and performing f'unctfons of teaching, research and/or supervision. Then under that we would say:

1. Graduate students who have completed one academic year will be included.

2. Men to retire or who are now enjoying emeritus status from their respective meat sections will also be listed. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of this recommendation.

CEATRMAN BLUMER: Thank you, Larry.

It has been moved and seconded that this motion be adopted. All those in favor of adopting the motion signif'y by saying aye; opposed by the same sign. The motion ie carried.

Thank you very much, Larry. Is there something more that you would like to add?

DR. KUNKLE: At the risk of an anti-climax I should like to ask that any of you who find an error contact me. f know that there are 213. . four or five things in this that have to be changed and I will take care of them. But will the rest of you be responsible as committees of one if you find errors to see me, please, between now and the banquet time, and then when I get home in the morning we will go right to work and see if we cannot get this into print. If you will, please, thank you very much.

CHAIRMAN BLUER: Thank you very much, Larry. And thank you, Mr. Burrell, for a very informative presentation. I am sure that we are all very grateful to Larry KWe for the tiie and work that he has put on the personnel directoly. My direct0i-y is very dog-eared looking. We used it a lot in the preparation of this year's program. If' for no other reason, I think it would be worth the work of getting it together, although 1 don't know if Larry wculd agree with me or not. We will go on with the program, the Meat Publication Fact Finding Committee, the chairman of which is Dr; A. !vi. Pearson. Dr. Pearson. (Applause)

DR. A. M. PEARSON: We will ask the members of the committee to come forward please, and that will help in the saving of the, those who are taking part on the program.

Our part on the program is entitled, "Do we want a meat pub- lication?" The first paper dealing with t3is is a eummary of the meat publication survey which we conducted during the past year. This topic will be discussed by Dr. George Wellington, of Cornell. George.