While the LSU AgCenter Dairy Store is best known for its frozen treats, it also offers a wide variety of some of the freshest meats in town.
In the Dairy Store, you can purchase cuts of beef, pork, lamb and goat that were raised and prepared right on campus.
“The farm is out on Ben Hur Road down Nicholson [Road], so it’s all LSU-raised animals that are slaughtered on campus … This is probably as fresh as you’re going to get it,” said Emily Shields, animal sciences senior and Dairy Store employee. “[Manuel] ‘Boo’ Persica is the Meat [Laboratory] manager, so he’s in charge of it — but the rest of it is run by student worker help and [graduate] student help.”
The animals are slaughtered in the LSU Meat Lab’s slaughterhouse, located in Francioni Hall. According to the LSU Meat Lab website, the Meat Lab is an U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service accredited laboratory program for protein, moisture, fat, and salt, with random samples inspected on a monthly basis from each meat processing plant.
The meat is packaged and frozen in the Meat Lab, then delivered to the Dairy Store on a bi-monthly basis.
“It’s pretty random — we probably get a freezer full maybe like twice a month,” Shields said. “We don’t have a certain day that stuff comes in. Usually, it’s once every few weeks.”
Similar to its unpredictable shipment schedule, different cuts of meat, like filets, T-bones, porterhouses or ribs, are available at different times.
While Shields said ground beef, goat meat and pork chops are the store’s most popular meats, she pointed out that all of the meat sells quickly once it hits the shelves.
“Whenever people hear that we have a new set in, it goes pretty fast,” she said. “And for two pounds of meat it’s only two, three dollars. So it’s pretty cheap, and it’s convenient. You don’t have to leave campus.”
Originally founded as the LSU Creamery in 1905, the Dairy Store began selling meat products just three years ago, said Charles Boeneke, animal sciences associate professor, who helps to run the store.
“Whenever we merged in with the School of Animal Sciences, they used to have a meat sale in Francioni,” he said. “We thought it’d be a good fit to start carrying it in the store and allow people to have access to it at all times rather than at certain times of the year.”
Boeneke said since all proceeds from the Dairy Store go to the animal sciences program, buying meat from the store is a way that students can support the University.
“It’s a great way to promote the AgCenter and LSU,” he said. “That, and it’s good stuff.”
