Photo courtesy of Sam Jens A group of 18 Lyon County 4-H members recently got a chance to observe how beef is butchered during a tour of the V&M Locker in Leota. Area youth learned more about the meat processing business, as well as how meat products are packaged and marketed for V&M’s retail store.

The work of feeding people doesn’t only happen on the farm. And Lyon County 4-H members recently got a chance to learn more about meat processing at a southwest Minnesota business. Area youth found there was a lot going on at the V&M Meat Locker in Leota.

“I was surprised at the amount of people that it takes to complete the process, from skinning the animal to trimming the cuts and packaging the meats,” Connor Lanoue said in a news release. Lanoue was one of 18 4-H members who toured V&M Locker.

“It’s the first time we’ve done something like this,” said Sam Jens, Extension educator in youth development in Lyon County. He said. Area 4-H youth were interested in getting a chance to explore different career paths, including industries that were connected to agriculture.

V&M were “very excited” to have the 4-H group visit, Jens said. V&M recently expanded its facilities, he said. The locker is located in Leota, in the northwest corner of Nobles County.

The locker tour was sponsored by the 4-H Beef Project.

Jens said members of the 4-H group could opt to see different stages of V&M’s production process, from slaughtering and butchering animals to processing meat. They also got a chance to talk with professionals at each stage, and ask them questions.

“It was interesting how the meat processing works and how animals go from our farm to the table,” said Linkin Hesse.

Members of the tour group said they learned a lot about how butchering an animal works.

“I couldn’t believe how many different types of knives they use in the butchering process from skinning to deboning,” said Bryn Wichmann. “It was really interesting.”

Tyler Wichmann also added that it was interesting to see “How they tracked how many different cuts they can make out of a beef, and being able to customize it to how the customer wants.”

Jens said the tour covered topics like the humane handling of animals during slaughter, food safety standards, and the importance of quality control. V&M has a retail store in addition to a meat processing business, so 4-H members also got to learn about how meat is prepared and packaged for the store, as well as marketing strategies.

“It was interesting to see how they use an automated system to slice and package meat products like bacon,” said Carson Lanoue.

Jens said the tour ended with time for reflection. The 4-H members shared what they learned about the farm-to-fork process, and talked about how they could use their new knowledge in their own agricultural pursuits.