The National Provisioner is proud to welcome the Meat Industry Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

After nominations solicited from the industry and voting by past inductees of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, six members were selected for the Class of 2024:

• Barb Masters, D.V.M., Tyson Foods
• Dr. H. Glen Dolezal Jr., Cargill, retired
• Robert Meyer, Meyer Natural Foods
• Frederick Usinger IV, Usinger Inc.
• Roger H. Ball, King B Jerky/Golden Valley Natural Jerky
• Craig W. Hess, Speco Inc.

Barb Masters, D.V.M.

Barb Masters is the vice president for regulatory policy, food and agriculture at Tyson Foods. She provides regulatory vision and support across the business enterprise at Tyson Foods.

Masters came to Tyson from Keystone Foods, where she served as the global vice president for food safety and quality. She is a lead instructor for the Human Preventive Controls Rule.

Prior to joining Keystone Foods, she was a senior policy advisor at OFW Law. Before joining the firm, Masters spent 17 years at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. She held a variety of positions throughout the agency, both in the field and at headquarters, including serving as an in-plant inspector and the administrator for the agency.

Masters graduated from Mississippi State University with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1987 and served in a food animal internship at Kansas State University in 1988. She continued to further her education by taking advanced coursework in biotechnology at Texas A&M University.

Masters served on the nominating and foundation committees for IAFP, and she received the Silliker Lecture Award from the association in 2021. She serves on the Beef Industry Food Safety Council and was chair in 2021. Masters is also an active member of the Partnership for Food Safety Education, serving as chair of the board. She is a past member of the Sterring Committee for the Global Food Safety Initiative, and a past member of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Masters received the Food Safety Magazine Distinguished Service Award in 2007, and the Mississippi State Alumni Fellow of the Year for 2004.

Masters' publication contributions include "Advantages of Traceability Beyond Connecting Consumers to Their Food," CIOReview. Masters and Williams, 2022; "The Direct Relationship Between Animal Health and Food Safety Outcomes," CAST Commentary, Hurd, Masters, Mathew, Oliver, Preston, and Singer, 2012; "Food Safety and Inspection Service Update on Food Safety of Animals Derived from Biotechnology," Journal of Animal Science, 1993; "Physical Examination of Swine," Veterinary Clinics of North America Food Animal Practice, July 1992.

Masters said her passion throughout her career has been teaching and stakeholder collaboration.

Dr. H. Glen Dolezal Jr.

Glen Dolezal joined Cargill in 1999, after 21 years of training and teaching at Texas A&M University, Colorado State University and Oklahoma State University, respectively. He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from Texas A&M, and his doctorate from Colorado State.

Dolezal served as an instructor at Texas A&M from 1978 to 1980 and as a professor at Oklahoma State University from 1983-1999. He is a co-holder of patents for innovations that have improved beef production at Cargill’s processing facilities.

Dolezal has been involved with the American Meat Science Association since 1998, the Intercollegiate Meat Coaches Association from 1983-1999, and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association since 1995. Dolezal also has served on the US Meat Animal Research Center Research Advisory Board since 2017.

Robert Meyer

Robert Meyer transitioned from real estate to pursue a passion for ranching, founding Meyer Co. Ranch in 1990 and growing a registered and commercial Red Angus herd using advanced breeding techniques including embryo implants and artificial insemination.

Meyer built on his success by founding Meyer Natural Foods, a company that produces high-quality beef on a 30,000-acre Angus cattle ranch in Montana. Meyer Naturals Foods is the largest supplier of natural and organic beef in North America. The company operates under multiple brands including Meyer Natural Angus, Laura’s Lean Beef, Dakota Grass Fed Beef and Local Harvest, and has expanded to feature natural pork.

Frederick Usinger IV

Frederick Usinger IV is the fourth-generation president of Usinger Sausage, a Wisconsin-based sausage company founded in 1880.

Usinger earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Meat & Animal Science Department in 1980. He began his career as plant manager of Usinger Sausage that year, moving to the role of meat buyer in 1982 and vice president of purchasing in 1987. He then became president of the company and Usinger Foundation in 1988.

In 1993, Usinger's company constructed a new distribution center, and a new processing plant in 2004.

Usinger is very involved in the industry outside of his executive role; he began a long-term membership in the Wisconsin Livestock & Meat Council in 1993, serving as scholarship chair from 2002 to 2014. Usinger served on the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Board of Visitors from 2003 to 2006. He was a North American Meat Institute Board member from 2003 to 2021, and a member of the advisory committee for the Meat Science & Animal Biologics Discovery Building at UW-Madison from 2009 to 2013.

Roger H. Ball

Roger Harold Ball was born in rural Southeast Idaho in 1940, growing up with a love for livestock and a well-run operation. After graduating with a master's degree from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, he and his wife Marsha Zundel Ball packed the car and the kids and headed to the University of Illinois for a post-graduate degree in meat science and chemistry. In 1968, armed with his passion for the meat industry and a well-rounded education, Roger and Marsha returned to Idaho Falls to purchase and operate a small local meat processing plant on the banks of the Snake River called Taylor Meats.

As the decade was coming to a close, so too was the life expectancy of the small-town meat packing plant, as the industry consolidated itself to such centrally located towns as Omaha, Nebraska.  A plant fire in the early 1970’s presented Roger with a question and an opportunity – rebuild the plant as a packing plant or retool and be reborn as a meat snack plant? His background and education both lent themselves well to the newly emerging business of retail jerky and meat snacks. Armed with some ideas and recipes, King B Jerky emerged from the ashes of Taylor Meats. It was literally a situation where a fun college hobby and was spun into a booming enterprise. Roger’s proprietary recipes, production techniques and packaging concepts ensured that he was first-to-market with a moist and tender jerky. Suddenly King B made it possible for people of all ages to enjoy a high-protein snack.

As King B’s reputation grew along with annual sales, Roger applied himself to improving quality and new innovations. As a result, other companies were also created and branched off from King B such as Precision Plastics, Crown Label and even current MLM giant Melaleuca.

Roger and his family are considered pioneers in the world of meat snacks, as King B led the way in modern packaging techniques, product preservation, quality control and innovative ways to maximize profits from the meat trimming and cooking operation. A game changer for King B was Roger’s ingenuity and creation of a shredded beef jerky that became known as “Jerky Stuff” and immediately thrust King B into the national spotlight.

At the turn of the century, Roger began to sense the impending need in the US for safer and more natural/organic products that would instill greater confidence in the buyers and final consumers. After carefully considering various offers from competing brands to buy King B Inc., it was sold to Jack Link's. This sale opened a door to turn over all Ball Family ranches and livestock to a more natural and organic style of operation and in turn, create a jerky brand that would represent that same concept in the retail arena. Golden Valley Natural and sister company Healthy Partner Pet Snacks accomplished exactly that. Jerky enthusiasts and pet owners nationwide came to rely on both companies to provide meat snacks that consist of all the high protein/low fat attributes they desire without any of the preservatives, unnatural ingredients, added growth hormones, MSG or nitrites.

Many of the products produced and shipped from the Ball Family facilities in Idaho Falls were branded under private brand names and sold through those nationally known chains. Roger's bison ranching business known as Intermountain Bison was directly fueled by his private-label jerky customer’s demand for all-natural buffalo jerky and has made him one of the largest single private owners of bison in the world.

An important facet of Roger Ball’s legacy is his love of ranching and getting those wholesome products from his high-mountain ranches to your plate. His lifetime interest and reverence for the North American Bison is made manifest at the Ball Family ranches along with premium breeds of beef cattle. In an effort to better streamline this dream and concept, a meat packing plant was constructed in Idaho Falls in 2022. Intermountain Packing was built to handle all types of cattle but specifically to address the need for a quality bison processing plant in North America. For that reason, it has become a processing destination for bison throughout the Mountain West and Canada.

At the age of 84, there seems to be no slowing down Roger’s love for the meat industry or his involvement in it.

Craig W. Hess

Craig W. Hess is the president and CEO of Speco Inc., which has now been in business for over 100 years. His career started at the AMI convention in Chicago at The Palmer House in 1957.

Hess has had great success growing his family business including securing many patents. He served on the Meat Industry Suppliers Association board of directors, Food Processing Suppliers Association foundation board, North American Meat Institute board and on the executive NAMI board as supplier representative member.

He was one of the founding members in the development of the Meat Industry Suppliers Association Educational Foundation and instrumental in the re-establishment of the new Meat Industry Suppliers Alliance Educational Foundation. Speco is the oldest supplier member of the Meat Institute.

Induction ceremony

To celebrate the Meat Industry Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024, MIHOF once again hosted its annual in-person honors ceremony, with this year’s induction reception taking place July 25, 2025, during the AAMP American Convention of Meat Processors & Suppliers’ Exhibition in Kansas City, Mo.

The National Provisioner would like to extend a sincere congratulations to the six newest members of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, and we invite all meat and poultry industry professionals to join us in honoring and commemorating these leaders with our industry’s highest honor and recognizing the meat and poultry industry as the leading sector of North American food production.

www.provisoneronline.com   |  august 2025