My entry into our industry back in 1970 came via livestock, specifically hogs. After growing up on a farm in West Texas and armed with a degree in Animal Science, I had no inclination to do anything other than work with livestock. For almost five years, I managed confinement hog farms and a small feed mill.
Then, unexpectedly, I found myself walking into the Jimmy Dean Meat Company sow kill sausage plant in Plainview, Texas, as the plant manager. I had no idea what a plant manager did, but it was a bigger job and more money, so I was all in! How that opportunity came about is a story unto itself, but suffice it to say, I was thrust into a completely new world.