Texas Tech University’s Meat Judging Program stands as a distinguished sector within the Davis College of Animal Sciences and Natural Resources, known for its commitment to excellence and continued national success.
Mark Miller, Ph.D., San Antonio Livestock Exposition Endowed Chair in Meat Science and Meat Science Professor at Texas Tech University, has a long-standing involvement with the meat judging program’s success within Texas Tech.
Miller has been a professor at the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources since 1990. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Tech and his doctoral degree from Texas A&M University. Miller said he coached at the University of Georgia and worked in the meat industry before coming back to Texas Tech, but he ultimately returned to improve Texas Tech’s meat judging program.
“I wanted to be able to try to grow the platform of Texas Tech to where hopefully it’s internationally recognized in meat science and judging,” Miller said. “The kids are the real reason. I love teaching and watching them grow, and then the impact that they go and have when they leave here.”
A unique aspect of Miller’s coaching is being heavily student oriented.
“Every kid has a purpose,” Miller said. “We shouldn’t evaluate people based on their meat-judging skill, and that’s why, for me, it’s always been a philosophy. Everybody’s welcome and everybody’s going to get the same coaching value.”
Beyond his coaching style, Miller said how he approached meat judging in a way that will continue to influence the sustainability of Texas Tech’s program, even after stepping away from coaching.
“We developed a patent process that we patented and Cargill bought out that patent,” Miller said. “So we started a chair for meat judging and teaching, which is focused on the meat judging and competitive teams programs.”
Miller explained that when a faculty member leaves a university, there’s often a delay in finding a replacement, which can put the future of the program they led at risk.
“We’re going to work together to keep that program, then he’ll carry the reins from that point forward,” Miller said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to rotate and have a perpetual, sustainable meat judging program. No one has ever been able to do that in the history of universities or meat judging.”
Although Miller remains involved with the program as a professor, he knows there will come a day when he steps away completely. When asked what legacy he hopes to leave behind, his eyes welled with tears.
“I would just like to be able to impact people in a way that would glorify God,” Miller said as he smiled tearfully. “At the end of the day, nobody’s ever going to remember a plaque or trophy. It’s all dust-you don’t take any money with you, but what you leave behind is what you gave away.”
Miller connects his thoughts on retirement to his deep-rooted faith, viewing his career as a calling rather than a job.
“People ask when I will retire, and I say I never have worked, because if you love what you do, if you are glorifying God and what He put you to do, you’re never working,” Miller said.