Have you every tried a pasture raised pork chop next to a confinement raised pork chop without being told which is which?
Tyson closing plant in Perry
- Thread starter ClonerJams
- Start date
Man I don’t think you can beat a big ol’ Iowa chop grilled to perfection over charcoal and smothered in chunky applesauce.
No, I cant say that I have.
It could be all in my head, as I said. I would like to try that, and see if I can taste the difference. Maybe someday I will.
Meat products that have been packaged by cryovac can have a slightly off-putting smell to them, and is likely what you're noticing. I've never noticed it carry through to the final product, though.
Some pretty solid information, if your town (especially if it’s a medium to smaller town) can pick which hog company to partner with, take a finishing (like making pepperoni or something with no slaughter floor) facility from Hormel. Some very nice things that will be coming down the line if you do.
Sorry my mistake for misunderstanding. I did note that many utilize rail for rendering (byproducts) but I can also tell you that those products are a long shot from being the driving force (read: profit potential) of the plant.
Rail service may be a factor, but I would bet it is rather low on the checklist; especially since they had it at one time but it was discontinued. What could be an interesting note is Perry is mainly an export plant, and at least theoretically rail could offer advantages for the primary finished goods since they will inevitably end up at a seaport. Again, I have only seen rail service for byproducts. Of course this would require refrigerated rail cars, which you may be able to enlighten upon?
I’m thinking you have predisposed yourself to that. There are a few out there that are non confinement raised.
I will also say (I don’t like saying this either) that your ma and pa butcher shops are not the place to buy your pork. The key to pork is that it needs to be chilled extremely fast. Most lockers can’t do it fast enough. As pork chills, the pH drops and the meat starts turning acidic. The slower the drop, the more acidic it is. A saltier pork is best so either buy Berkshire (which has a ADG of like 1) pork or get pork from a newer processing plant (Triumph or id guess the new eagle grove Prestage plant is that way) that is a rapid chill. It will be the most flavorful
Essentially anything not frozen in bulk, ground up, or not bought by a local butcher that actually butchers (read: kills/chills/harvests) on the spot is has at one time been in a cryovac bag. Perhaps as a larger primal or subprimal.
In other words, just about any whole muscle piece of red meat has been vacuum bagged.
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Again, I said it was a possible factor in the decision. Not the entire reason, probably not even the main reason. But when a looking at a collection of facilities, the ones without rail could be lower on the list of priority for expansion, upgrades, etc. Because they may want to continue in facilities that have the option of rail shipments.
Yes Tyson, as well as others, ship by refrigerated rail car. These most of the time head to California for export. For instance China will take refer cars full of the parts we dont regularly use, organs, hooves, snouts, ears etc. But they also get all types of products including loins, chops etc. I have seen shipments of refer cars full of pork loins going to the Navy in California. Which usually are for Naval vessels for meals.
Refer cars are very regular on the Rail.
The rail did not go out in Perry because Tyson didnt use it. There was not enough overall volume to maintain the track and/or there were similar routes that made the route redundant from point A to B. There just was not enough industry on the track to continue the cost of maintaining and operating it.
In the last years of the track that went to Perry, a train went couple times a week. Because of the poor condition of the track and the very reduced track speed, it took 3 crews to work the "Perry Job" 1 crew to get the train to Perry, 1 crew to work the Perry industries, and 1 crew to get the train back. And there really was no other industries along the way. So just Tyson was not enough to maintain the track and crews etc. especially when it was by that point a dead end track. There really wasnt much that shipped with any frequency outside Tyson at that point on that route.
For instance the Waterloo Tyson probably ships about 2 refer cars per day, (equivalent to about 8 trucks) and about 5-10 tank cars per week of byproduct. (obviously this ebbs and flows)
A small cold storage warehouse, I know in MN that stores/ships for Hormel, ships 10-15 refer cars per week. (eq to 40-60 truckloads) A standard rail car holds about 4 semis, give or take. I do not know how many the actual hormel plant itself ships, just their one cold storage off site.
Typical refer car on todays rail:
Extra large refer cars:
refer containers on stack train:
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It’s interesting that they wouldn’t have utilized it for their finished goods; it seems logical knowing the products’ final destination.
Even though it's not what it once was, Newton is still a nicer place to live than Perry is right now with the Tyson plant still there. Perry needs to get something in there ASAP.
. We buy a pig from a friend every year who raises them outdoors on a mix of corn, acorns, table scraps etc.... I can tell tell the difference.
I had the same experience and complained to the local grocer about it. He reassured me that meat from the same lot didn't have that taste and the taste was a result of the cryovac ? packaging was damaged during handling and the air infiltration caused the off taste. He gladly replaced the meat and told me to notify if it happened again. Since nearly 100% of the pork we consume is raised in confinement I tend to believe what my grocer told me--it doesn't all taste that way. I edited this post because I responded before reading the subsequent posts and others have alluded to similar thoughts
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Newton's housing market crashed when Maytag shutdown. You seeing it as a nicer town is based on demographics. I understand it's not necessarily intentional but it's a sad perception.
I owned a house and lived in Perry for about a year. It had a very “bedroom town” vibe to me.
Come on man, you only have to drive a couple minutes into either place and realize they aren't remotely the same.
