The UK Meat Cutting School offer its first ever Beef Processing Workshop.  This was a 2 1/2 day workshop that provided eight individuals with as much hands-on experience as possible.  The participants watched the meat lab staff slaughter a beef animal before being able to process an animal on their own.  There were five cattle available, which provided plenty of hands-on opportunity.  The eight participants ranged from current meat processors, to potential meat processor wanting to learn more about beef processing, to chefs.  Most of the participants were from Kentucky, however, two were from South Carolina and one from Tennessee.  The following day, again the participants watched the meat lab staff fabricate a carcass before the class had the opportunity to fabricated a carcass.  In addition to hands-on experience, the workshop covered USDA-FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) rules, laws and regulations, along with an overview of the beef industry, meat quality, and food safety.  The workshop received scores of 6 out of 6 on questions that asked about hands-on opportunities, effectiveness of instructors, workshop's impact, and if the workshop was worth the money.  Although the Beef Processing Workshop was a lot of work, the workshop was an overall success and more will be planned for the future.