VIDEO: Breaking down Texas Tech’s winning meat judging juggernaut
By: Allison Hirth & Jeff Ramazani
Texas Tech's Meat Judging Team has proven it's the cream of the crop, bringing home a trove of national championship trophies over the past two decades. What exactly is the high-steaks world of competitive meat judging? Texas Tech video producers sat down with members, both current and former, to get the details.
"Our success today is due to many years of alumni, and people who have come through here, that have set a standard," said Mark Miller, Tech's San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Distinguished Chair in Meat Science who serves as the team's coach. "We have a program that's set up to try to teach everyone to pursue excellence."
Lubbock National Bank officials on Thursday (June 27) presented the Texas Tech's Meat Judging Team a $5,000 contribution to help with travel and other expenses.
Miller is also a world-class animal science researcher, receiving the American Meat Science Association Distinguished Research Award (2019), along with the Texas Tech Chancellor's Council Distinguished Teaching Award and College Research Award. He's served as adviser to more than 110 graduate students while developing his nationally-recognized meat judging program accounting for more than 100 contest wins and 12 national championships since 1990.
Competitive meat judging traces its roots to 1926, when it was introduced at the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago. For the first 70 years it was governed by the National Livestock and Meat Board. Since 1996 it's fallen under the purview of the American Meat Science Association, which schedules six competitions each year headlined by the International Intercollegiate Meat Judging Contest in Nebraska every November.
CONTACT: Michael Orth, chairman, Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-5653 or michael.orth@ttu.edu
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