Rendering Plant Appointment

On 1-14-4, I got a chance to interview and see what goes on as a rendering driver, see inside the plant and interview with the director of sales and marketing at a Minnesota rendering plant.

We left on the drivers route about 8:30 am.  By this time, he already had half a load.  We were done picking up dead animals by 11 am. The load consisted of mostly dead pigs, one steer and a couple calves.

These drivers own their own trucks, pay for their own fuel and normal maintenance of these trucks.  They get paid by the hundred weight for their loads.  We had 14,156# of weight on the truck.  We backed up inside the building to an unloading dock.  Looking in the mirror, I could see cows & steers hanging from a chain by one leg upside down waiting to be skinned but
only if the hides are not damaged.  If the hides are damaged, they do not save them.  Off to the right was the machine that grinds up these animals.

When it was our turn to unload, a skid loader with a bucket and fingers goes into the back of the truck and picks up the pigs first and dumps them into the grinder.  From the grinder, it went to an auger and loaded into a semi trailer with ground up meat. It took only about 30 seconds.

Talking with the skid loader operator, this is done this way 24 hours a day, 5-1/2 days a week.  They are not dumped on the ground like some of the rumors.  It takes about 10 minutes to unload the truck.

Asking the skid loader driver what they do with horses, he said they do then right away.  They don't skin them; they process them right away and mix this with other meat.

I asked him what this meat went for.  The entire product gets turned into bone meal and is mixed with other products and fed to hogs.  None of this product goes into pet food so you can be sure your pets are not eating your horses.

While I was talking to the skid loader operator, the driver was washing and disinfecting the truck. This is done after every load.  We then left the plant and went to the main office.

At the main office, I talked with the Director of Sales and Marketing.  I introduced whom I represented and myself.  He was a little hesitant to talk in the lobby so we went back to his office.

The first question I asked him was if horse slaughter for human consumption was stopped, would this affect your business.   His immediate response was no.  There is not going to be an influx of horses to his business.  He said that if all farmers buried their animals or composted, it would not hurt his industry.  With all the dead animals brought into the plant, they only make up 8% of their volume.  Again he said no number of horses would change his
business.
 
I asked him how horses were done.  He gave me the same response I got before. They are done right away. They don't get dumped on the ground and lay there.  The only time they would be put aside is if they have shoes on. They have to be taken off before they can be put in the machine and that is probably with in 10 -15 minutes.  I asked him how long does it takes from
the time a driver unloads his load until the end of the process.  He said it takes about 2 hours.

The meat is put into a vat and cooked at very high temperatures.  The fat is all cooked off and separated from the meat and bone.  Then the meat and fat are tested for chemicals like PCB and MCD.  The FDA tests them on site.

If there is any found above FDA standards, the meat is not used.  It is taken to the landfill where it is buried immediately so no animal can get it.  This has only happened once since he has been there. This was from PCB' s.  It was traced back to a farm where a transformer leaked onto the ground and one cow ate vegetation from around the immediate area. None of the other cattle tested positive for PCB's.

I asked him about the recent Mad Cow Disease in the United States. He said the whole thing is ridiculous.  It is all media hype on a big story. They don't tell you all the facts.  He showed me on his computer what it would take to get MCD.  You would have to eat 10# per week for six months of cow brains or parts for the spinal cord.  Then you would have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of testing positive.  He said there I no reason people should quit eating beef and switch to horses for that reason.

I asked him what the charge was for picking up animals.  He said they have a $20 per stop fee.  The only exception was a place in Minnesota that the county called him to pick up some starved horses that had died.  He said they charged the man $60 per horse because he hates people that starve animals.  He said I was raised in South Dakota on a ranch where they used
horses all the time. When a horse was no longer able to do the work, they put it down and it went to rendering.  He also has family who raises horses for pleasure.  I thanked him for his time He said if there were any other questions to just give him a call and gave me one of his cards.