Greeley West’s Advanced Vet Science class, taught by Ms. Alexandra Grimes, visited Valley Packing House in LaSalle last Wednesday. They got to see and understand the different types of meat processing, live to dead. 

The students arrived at the packing house and got an initial tour of the building. They learned that the Valley Packing house is smaller and different from JBS. They get their business from different people and their processes for productioin are different as well. 

Teacher assistant and junior, Billie Perez stated, “We walked into another room, and there was two cows hanging from the ceiling by their feet…the guy was skinning them, and they were still twitching.”

From this, the students learned that they were still twitching because their muscles had a delayed response to the death.  This illustrated the importance of the slaughtering process.  Meat is best if the process is finished quickly. 

They saw many different rooms which showcased the different parts of the process. One room showed the cows before they are cut and packaged, while a different one had both pigs and cows hanging from the ceiling by their feet.

The trip to the packing house was a learning moment for the class, but at the same time, it was also a fun experience. 

Senior Priscilla Guzman stated, “It was actually really cool, the variety of animals. They didn’t have just cows, and they can do everything, like pigs, and one time there was actually a zebra.”