Monday night starts with a southwestern style beef dinner at the Hyatt Regency.  Tuesday the first stop on the tour will be The William J. Parker Agricultural Research Center a world-class one-of-a-kind environmental facility able to control for solar radiation, ambient temperature and relative humidity.  The facility is capable of mimicking any climate or heat cycle commonly observed in U.S. animal agriculture.   The building also includes surgery suites and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. The facility is unique in that it integrates large animal agriculture with whole animal metabolism and physiology and molecular biology.  University of Arizona Animal Science faculty who utilize the climate chambers specialize in nutrition, metabolism, muscle biology, reproductive physiology and mammary biology. 

Next we will visit the Meat Science Laboratory a state of the art, USDA inspected processing facility with full harvesting facilities, meat lockers and an interactive auditorium classroom connected to the meat lockers that allows instructors to use actual carcasses and demonstrate processing techniques in the classroom for instruction in meat science and food safety. The U of A Meat Science facility is the only one of its kind at a University in the Southwest.

We’ll than head to the High Sonora desert setting of Tinaja Hills Demonstration & Learning Center for Caterpillar which is one of only seven facilities around the world showcasing over 75 products, some of which you will see up close and personal.  Caterpillar will also be sponsoring a beef lunch at their sprawling facility.  A short bus ride away you will be able to observe a fully operational copper mine, Freeport McMoRan Sierrita Inc.

On our way back to Phoenix we will stop at the Santa Rita Ranch which has been operating as a cattle operation for over 100 years.  They raise registered red angus cattle, commercial cattle as well as sell their own branded beef on approximately 125 square miles. The ranch begins on the western edge at 2800 ft (8 inches precipiation) in elevation and climbs to over 8000 ft(up to 2 ft precipitation).  One of the most unique aspects of the ranch is that a portion of the ranch operates on one of the oldest agricultural experiment stations in the world.  The SRER (Santa Rita Experimental Range) has been conducting livestock studies since 1903.  This range is unique in that it combines an operating family ranch with current range and livestock research with the University of Arizona and has been keeping records on rainfall, grazing, animal reproduction, range management and repeat photography for over 100 years. They will show you some of the work being done on the range and discuss some of the unique challenges to ranching on the border with Mexico.

Children’s Tour: Phoenix Zoo

Saturday, January 31 • 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

$59.00 per Adult, $49.00 per Child

Voted one of the nation’s Top Five Zoo’s for Kids, the Phoenix Zoo is the nation’s largest non profit zoological park and home to more than 1,200 animals including more than 200 endangered or threatened birds, mammals or reptiles from around the world. Enjoy the Zoo’s four distinct trails: Arizona, Africa, Tropics and Children’s Trail. Discover the Zoo’s newest exhibit, Monkey Village, where the animals roam free. Come and get wild!