BATON ROUGE - A meat processing plant that has been on Southern University's campus for more than 40 years thanks to one man's hard work is slated to receive an upgrade. 

The plant has been operating since 1972 thanks to funds secured by the late Dr. George E. Robinson Jr., who once served as the dean of Southern's School of Agriculture.

Robinson said he applied for and received a $16,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to build the plant. The grant was the first USDA funding the school had ever received.

In the plant, students get hands-on experience and learn how to humanely harvest animals. The meat processed in the plant is still being used by Southern and beyond.

"Animals are bought in and they are processed into the cuts like ham, steak, ribs and those types of things. We do hog, we do beef cattle. We do beef cattle, we do goats and we do sheep," Dr. Calvin Walker, executive vice chancellor of the Southern University Ag Center, said.

Right now, the building is getting ready to go under construction for a remodel into a state-of-the-art facility that's expected to be completed in 2026.

Robinson was also a groundbreaking leader in animal science research as the first certified black animal scientist in the country.  

"We listened whenever Dr. Robinson spoke because he was the leader of the animal science unit,” Dr. Calvin Walker, executive vice chancellor of the Southern University Ag Center, said. 

Many of his colleagues say Robinson's research was ahead of its time.

"When I got here in 1985, he was talking about cholesterol, making animals more lean to lower cholesterol. And at that time, 40 years ago, cholesterol wasn't as important as we talk about it now," Walker said.

Robinson's son said that his legacy lives on at the plant, where students will continue learning about packing, processing, product development, teaching, and research development. 

“Knowing that my dad wanted to do some quality research was really motivating for me. He always was striving for better," Robinson’s son, Dr. George Robinson III, said.