Paul, Judy and Adam Polashek from Polashek’s Locker Service, Inc. in Protivin attended the 73rd Annual Convention & Trade Show of the Iowa Meat Processors Association. The event was held at the Gateway Hotel & Conference Center and the ISU Meat Laboratory in Ames on Feb. 20-22. The conference was attended by processors from 40 Iowa plants and vendors from a wide variety of companies displayed their products and explained their services to those in attendance at the trade show on Friday and Saturday.
The convention participants attended seminars on the processing of beef and pork as well as other topics related to the management and designs of their businesses. The educational sessions on Friday were held at the ISU Meat Laboratory under the direction of Extension Meat Specialist, Dr. Joe Cordray and other meat science staff members from Iowa State University. In addition to the ISU presentations, there were presentations given by speakers from CIRAS at Iowa State University, VAA Extension at ISU and Doug Gross, Attorney At Law, Des Moines.
Dr. Cordray was in charge of the Iowa Cured Meats Competition held on Saturday during the convention. There were over 300 entries of processed meats in twenty classes of the competition. The entries were judged by judges from Iowa State University. Polashek’s Locker received the following awards at the Annual Awards Banquet on February 21, 2009:
- Champion – Whole Muscle Jerky
- Champion – Large Diameter Luncheon Meat (Lunchmeat)
- Reserve Champion: Small Diameter Smoked Cooked Sausage (Smokies)