Cash Sprankle, a graduate of Penn State's butcher apprenticeship program, speaks at a hearing of the Pennsylvania House and Senate ag committees Aug. 10, 2022, at Ag Progress Days. To hig right are fellow graduates Parker Bell and Nick Oman.

Cash Sprankle, a graduate of Penn State's butcher apprenticeship program, speaks at a hearing of the Pennsylvania House and Senate ag committees Aug. 10, 2022, at Ag Progress Days. To hig right are fellow graduates Parker Bell and Nick Oman.

ROCK SPRINGS, Pa. — Penn State’s butcher apprenticeship is beginning to pay off for aspiring meat cutters and Pennsylvania’s ag industry.

Three of the program’s first graduates spoke Wednesday in a joint meeting of the House and Senate agriculture committees at Ag Progress Days.

Parker Bell came into the program knowing the challenges of meat processing. His family has a beef operation in Tyrone, so he was familiar with booking slaughter dates a year in advance — an unwieldy result of the high demand for the services of butchers who serve direct-marketing farmers.

In the training program, Bell said he learned about more meat science subjects than he had ever realized might be useful to him. He also spent hours honing his hands-on skills.

“You can’t learn how to skin half a beef out unless you skin half a beef out,” he said.

Penn State’s butcher apprenticeship involves classroom training in meat science and food safety, as well as hands-on work in a meat processing business. The first cohort of six students began in January 2021, and a second started at the beginning of this year.

Apprentices are also taught financial management and marketing — necessities for operating a small business, and coursework the apprentices say has been useful.

Demand for butchering is highest in the fall and lowest in the late winter, so Bell said he needs to budget carefully to get through the lean months.

Former apprentice Nick Oman said daily Facebook marketing is helping to grow his business.

“We get more engagement on our Facebook posts than word of mouth and anything else,” he said.

Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Philadelphia, was impressed by that.

“Facebook has some redeeming value. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to say that,” he joked.

On the recommendation of advisers in the industry, Penn State charges no tuition for the butcher school. Students do have to forego full-time employment and relocate to State College during the program.

“That’s a tremendous sacrifice on their part, but we’ve removed, hopefully, a great barrier to entry,” said Dan Brockett, assistant leader of the community vitality program leader at Penn State Extension.

The program’s funders include butcher shops, the state Center for Poultry and Livestock Excellence, and the Pennsylvania Beef Council, said Jonathan Campbell, a Penn State meat specialist and is one of the main instructors for the apprenticeship.

“However you did that, that’s fantastic," said Rep. Dan Moul, R-Adams, chairman of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. "Not only is that a great tuition price, but it’s encouragement also” for the apprentices.

Bell said the apprenticeship’s affordability was a big selling point for him.

Since completing the apprenticeship, the three graduates on the panel have used their apprenticeship experience to build on family businesses.

Cash Sprankle and his parents have run a deer butcher shop for years, but with his butchering experience, two months ago they opened Sprankle’s Butcher Shop in Tyrone.

Bell is looking to evolve the start-to-finish cattle business he runs with his father-in-law in Tyrone. Bell sees direct-sale beef customers shifting away from large quantities of freezer beef and favoring retail cuts. He’s working toward producing meat that can be sold through farmers markets or the farm’s website.

To complement his family’s catering and concessions business, Oman opened a restaurant and store, The Full Bull Table and Market, in Rohrsburg, outside Bloomsburg.

Oman is selling local products, but within the year he hopes to add a counter for fresh-cut meats, hamburger and sausages.

Rep. Bud Cook, R-Washington, grew up on a beef farm and had a butcher for a neighbor, so he has been cutting meat since age 12. He asked the graduates how to promote meat processing careers to school students.

After all, butchering isn’t for everyone. It’s dirty and involves killing animals, which Bell said is a hard part of the job.

“A lot of times (when) they get to high school, they’ve already been told that ag is not the answer,” he said.

Oman suggested starting by speaking to 4-H and FFA groups. His alma mater, Central Columbia High School, has a small butcher shop.

The meat processing industry could use more workers, and people are looking to fill those positions.

Penn State's butcher program produced six graduates from its pilot program, and the second cohort, which began in January, saw over 100 applications for eight slots, Brockett said.

Given the strong demand for the program, Campbell is looking to launch a redesigned version of the course in summer 2023 — when the apprentices don’t have to compete with undergrad meat science classes for space in the Penn State Meats Lab.

The new intensive program could accept 20 to 30 students at a time. Even so, the program would take time to replace the many butchers who are retiring now. Butchering is a skill that takes years to hone, Campbell said.

Since 2015, Pennsylvania has approved a half dozen ag-related apprenticeships — for agricultural equipment technicians, dairy grazing, diversified vegetable production, landscape management, and groundskeeping, in addition to butchering.

Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor, sits on the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee but did not attend the Ag Progress Days meeting.

He gave a radio interview in McConnellsburg that morning and had a rally planned in Beaver County for later in the day.

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Phil Gruber is the news editor at Lancaster Farming. He can be reached at 717-721-4427 or pgruber@lancasterfarming.com. Follow him @PhilLancFarming on Twitter.

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