Funding for franks

Chico State’s meats lab at the University Farm is getting beefed up thanks to an $88,000 donation from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

The funds will pay for a smokehouse oven and sausage-making equipment, helping the meats lab to develop its line of sausages, which are sold at the Sierra Nevada Restaurant and Taproom and to the public at the farm.

The College of Agriculture began partnering with the brewing company in 2003, giving students the opportunity to manage Sierra Nevada’s cattle at the farm, feeding the livestock spent brewer’s grains. The meats lab processes the animals, and the beef is served on the Sierra Nevada restaurant menu.

Meats lab technician Randy Long (pictured with Chico State prof Dave Daley, left, and Sierra Nevada’s Stan Cooper, right), stressed the ways the recent donation will benefit students: “The equipment will provide tremendous flexibility in a variety of cooked-meat products and allow students to work on new-product development,” he said in a statement