July 7, 2010

Hey Everybody!

It was pretty busy today; not much time between some operations we saw and when we headed out. Still, from the time we left Coffs Harbor to meet up with Lee Freeman, driving up the mountain face was fun enough (for a second time) and we went to three places with the local agronomist. The first was a full blood Wagyu operation which ran about 450 head on 2000 acres. From pictures and videos I could tell they weren't the best looking animals and seeing some up close only drove that home! Also, Lee mentioned that after they were backgrounded on pasture typically Wagyu operations then grain feed for about 400+ days...Lots of input on these guys, but it makes more sense when they sell for around $4 - $5 per kilo vs. regular beef at $1.30.

Another interesting fact is the land formation. It's so hilly and wet, with annual precipitation close to the 80 inch mark that vehicles besides the tractor, bulldozer, and other machinery to till, seed, and fertilize are not very functional. On the other hand, there was an awesome waterfall where the water for irrigation and stock water is pulled from. Anyway, that was a pretty cool place even though I wouldn't want to be the driver to pick that bunch of cows up, due to the winding roads. After that we went to a boer goat operation which were the best I've ever seen! As well as a completely family owned and operated dairy of about 145 Holstein and jersey cows. It truly stumps me (coming from home) how they manage their fields so they can jsut do a rotational schedule between their paddocks. On the dairy, the guide told us they rotate the cows about every week and that until a fortnight (approximately 21 days) has passed and they have a base of rye, legume, and maybe 2 other grasses that they mainly use. Guess it's nice when you can get 160 round bales that are around 1500 pounds of silage off of 11 acres...

Anyway after running around there we packed up and headed back to Coffs Harbor.

Catch you 'round like a rissole;!

Brogan

Well today we had another exciting day of touring around some different agriculture sites, my favorite one was a goat farm. Usually, I do not think much of goats, but after seeing the industry and its possibilities... WOW! Goats were first brought to Australia when mining towns used to be big out west, but after the miners left they just let their goats go wild. Now there are huge populations, and station owners harvest 20 million wild goats each year to help offset costs. Because of this and other reasons, the goat industry is the fastest growing industry in Australia right now. The place we went to this afternoon raised boer goats. You may think these are the goats that are raised in the states and we see in all the fairs and shows, but these are superior quality. These goats have only been in Australia for 15 years and for the last five years they have been used for the meat industry. The boer goat has attributes that make it unique. The boer goat's fetus does 80% of its growing in the last month of gestation, and after that it does 50% of its growth in the first 5 months postnatally. Additionally, goats require more roughage in their diet to stay alive. Finally, in comparison to cattle, 1 breeding cow = 10 goats when grazing on a pasture. With all this in mind it is really clear that the goat industry could be a potentially good business adventure, especially as people learn the health benefits of goat, and the flavor due to increased marbling in comparison to lamb. I look forward to seeing what the goat industry has in store for the future.

Till next time,

Chris

Research and Angus Bull Stud

July 6, 2010

G'day Mates!

Today was an interesting day. We spent the morning at the Glen Innes Research Station. There we met the beef research head, Jason. Jason also lined up presentations from the head sheep guy, and two of the agronomists. It was really interesting to talk with all of them. We had lots of discussion with each speaker about the differences between how we run agricultural operations and why. We also learned that they don't have many invasive weeds, or very many plants that are poisonous to livestock. They also have insane stocking rates compared to what we are used to. At the station they were running a cow to every acre, which they admitted was overstocked, but not too bad.

This afternoon, we went and toured Greg Chappell's place. He runs a majority of angus, but has a few Bonsmara and Belmont Reds. The bonsmara and belmont reds really didn't do much for me. They had too much leather and were too round in the hip, but they were good in their own regards I suppose. However, he had some amazing Angus bulls. They are having a bull sale in 3 weeks, and from what we heard they usually average $5,000 to $6,000. Every bull also has EBVs (Estimated Breeding Values), the same things as our EPDs. Tonight we ate Italian pizza and stayed in the Formule 1 hotel again. Pretty good day!

Have a good one,

Jaymes

After another breakfast at trusty old McDs we headed out to a CRC (Cooperative Research Center). Orginally we were going to go out and have a look at some of the paddocks and animals... however, the weather didn't cooperate with us. So instead we had some presentations by the head of the sheep research station and some agronomists. We learned that many pastures in Australia are seeded... a practice that allows them to have a lot of grass even throughout the winter. Lunch was at an excellent little bakery with awesome meat pies! We then headed out to Shannon Vale, an Angus stud ranch. We got to look at a variety of bulls and push the vat out of several different fields! We then drove down the coast to Coffs Harbour. We stayed in Lander's favorite motel Formule 1, where Becky and I were intruded to the joys of cockroaches... in our bathroom! Fun time! Tomorrow we head out to see some more farms.

Cheers!

Jessi

A New Wool Sweater and a Wagyu Steak to go with it

July 5, 2010

We left Duval College in Armidale today. Our first stop was 25 km east of Armidale, to a family farm. It was amazing! They had 20,000 acres, 12,500 head of Merino ewes with a total of 20,000+ sheep on the place, and 800 head of angus cows on the side. We learned a lot about wool there! They produce wool anywhere from 13 to 17 microns, which if you knew wool that is very fine! They had two shearing barns one was 100 years old and the newest one was built in 2002. They made some improvements that made shearing easier and cleaner for everyone!

All the ewes are ultrasounded and sorted whether they have twins, a single or are dry. From there, they feed them accordingly. The ewes also all have two tags, an electronic tag & a regular tag. The regular tags are different colors depending on the range of their wool fibers. On the electronic tag, they record sires, birth weights, birthing difficulty, microns, etc.
It was all quite interesting!

More to come,

Becky

As Becky mentioned we left Armidale today to continue taking tours of the ag industry. After lunch we headed north towards Glen Innes and Rangers Valley Cattle Station. This is a 12,000 acre station/farm/feedlot operation. Gram "Grub" Mabbott gave us a tour of the feedlot section of the place. They are currently feeding 22,000 head of stears; mostly angus with some Wagyu - holstein crosses. The angus spend about 270 days on feed while some of the Wagyus spend up to 450 days on feed! They source all of their cattle from the southern part of New South Wales and don't buy any cattle from a sale yard.

Besides the cattle they have in the feedlot. They grow about 3,000 steers on pasture until they are ready to go on feed. of the 12,000 acres, they farm about 5,000 acres raising various crops including corn. This is the first station I've seen that raised corn. They are able to produce about 50% of their own corn silage. One silage pit we saw was 133 meters long and 35 wide!

Several things are different over here from how we do it in the states. The first is that they mix all feed in "batch boxes" instead of in the feed truck. This helps make feeding faster because a ration is usually waiting to be loaded whenever a truck pulls up to get it. The next thing is that it is the feedlot's responsibility to wash the cattle before they are shipped to slaughter. This is very time consuming as they can usually only wash about 120 head per day, sometimes less if they are really dirty.

Although we only met "Grub", Rangers Valley employs 42 people including millers, mechanics, pen riders, and pen cleaners. We got to climb a tower on site and got some really good pictures of the feed lot.

I could keep going into detail but then this blog would be more like a book. Tomorrow we are headed to tour a research station, another station with a bull raising operation, but you'll have to log on tomorrow to see how that went.

Wade

Wollomombi!!!

July 4, 2010

Today we went to Point Lookout and Wollomombi Falls... Breathtaking is one way to describe it, although that wouldn't get it done! The pictures we took here are worth more than a thousand words! We headed out this afternoon, after saying bye to all of our new-found friends from Murdoch and other Universities that attended the competition, which seemed like the hardest thing all week!

We spent the afternoon walking through trails and looking out across the land finding the odd plant and animal (including an echidna that was burying itself next to a tree). After seeing the waterfall, canyon, and the dog fence (constructed to help contain wild dogs and dingos) we headed back to UNE for our last night at Duval. That's when we truly felt like a bit of the trip was gone since Big, Medium, and Little  Pete as well as the rest of the Murdoch crew were already most of the way home. Either way, it gave us a chance to get some laundry and long-needed rest.

Catch you 'round like a rissole'

Brogan

Happy 4th! Today we had a relaxing day compared to the last week. We started off by getting very little sleep and then it was off to say goodbye to Murdoch. The exciting part of the day was when we drove east of Armidale to look at a canyon. This place was crazy! It looked like someone took an ice cream scoop and took a scoop out of the ground. We were at one of the highest places in Australia, and the canyon dropped a third of the way to sea level. It also had a waterfall that was really tall, but I could only imagine what it would be like during the rainy season. We then walked around and found other vantage points to look at the canyon. Someone found an echidna (porcupine looking thing). It was walking around but when it say us it dug into the ground. In all the canyon was a neat stop on our journey and I look forward to what's ahead.

Chris

The Big Day!

July 3, 2010

'Ow ya going'? We're doing great here. Today was a really long day we got up at around 4 to get ready to head to the Cargill plant which was an hour long bus ride. They must not have heaters on their buses, because that was the coldest most miserable ride of my life! To make matters worse the air vent above me was broken, and cold air conditioning air blew on me the whole way. We tried to look at the positive side of the frigid bus ride... The cooler could feel warm. We were dead wrong, DEAD WRONG! Not only were the coolers colder they had huge chiller fans running. It was like being in Wyoming at ten below, with 20 mph winds and 90% humidity. It went straight to our bones! The fans had enough force that people were losing papers off their clipboards all day. They also have a lot more strict regulations down here. We had to wear masks, in order to keep from getting Q-Fever, safety glasses, and weren't allowed to wear gloves.

All in all, it was a pretty good 21st birthday! We went to banquet, Brogan and Wade got their name called a few times for individual awards. Murdoch University, the team we traveled with won, with our team in a very close second. It was a good day, and we are really enjoying ourselves. Hope you are all doing well.

Cheers,
Jaymes

Got up nice and early and headed to Tamworth for the Beef Judging part of the contest. The bus ride was the coldest bus ride I've ever experienced... Everyone down here thinks we must not be cold here because it doesn't get even close to as cold as back home, which is very true. However, as I pointed out on the bus, we believe very strongly in things like bus heat, blankets on your bed and COATS! I'm pretty sure the bus actually had the A.C. on! Anyways, we made it to the plant and had a bit of time to warm up before we headed to the chillers (Aussie talk for coolers). Two Australian girls passed out, it was so cold. Despite the cold it was one of the most enjoyable contests for me. After finishing up the contest in late afternoon, we headed back to the college, where we had our banquet dinner. We had a great meal of rib steak, mushrooms and potatoes! We were randomly seated with other students and Becky and I sat a table with some students who wanted to know what we thought about Obama! So, we got to have a good politic discussion. After dinner we had the presentation of awards. As a team we won lamb judging, reasons/questions, and retail and primal identification. Winning lamb judging was especially exciting as we have always struggled with it. Overall a pretty successful day!

Jessi

Round One!

July 2, 2010

We woke up to a little rain today; not bad but just kind of misty all day. We listened to a few speakers this morning, attended a career fair, and then it was time to start the long awaited contest. We judged pork, lamb, and retail cuts today and so far we feel good about it. Tomorrow we finish with beef back Cargill in Tamworth.

We continue to meet and make new friends and I am finding it easier and easier to understand these Aussies; not only is the accent strong but the slang they use is hilarious. I think I need to start making a traveler's dictionary.

Wade

"How you goin'" - An Aussie Greeting
Another early morning, chilly as it has been every morning. We heard about Japanese Black Cattle or as we know it Wagyu. I found this presentation very interesting and took a lot of notes. There was also a talk given by Lander and Kelcey on Wyoming Beef and Cowboy Meat Judging. The Aussies were shocked at how cold Wyoming is and how much we practice for judging. They were surprised that we had time to spare. Then we listened to another presentation on career advice. Although it seems like we hear this information time and time again, I always seem to pick up a few extra tips each time. Next, we were off to morning tea (a regular occurance) and the career fair. There were about 7 businesses there trying to recruit young, innovative minds.

We had lunch and then off to the 1st part of the contest. While half of the group was judging the other half listened to a very interesting talk on value added products. It was mind-boggling. There is so much being done in research and development for value-added products! WOW!

The contest seemed to go well. Seemed like a regular contest! The thing we found the most difficult was judging pork carcasses because they were displayed whole instead of split like we regularly see. We finished off the evening with dinner and a presentation on meat processing innovations. We needed to go to bed early because of the early morning contest. Woohoo!

Cheers!
Becky

DINK = Double Income No Kids

July 1, 2010

More lectures and presentations today... Some good and some that weren't exactly the most exciting. The highlight was easily a man named Peter Trefort with his explanation of meeting his consumers needs by identifying their demographics. He's an older bloke who frequently cracked jokes to keep your attention. His enthusiasm rubbed off on all the students and it was easy to tell that he was passionate about the co-op he represented. Unlike yesterday, we had a speaker after dinner which was "interesting" to say the least. Other than that there isn't too much else to say besides the contest starts tomorrow!

Catch you  'round like a rissole'!

Brogan

Hey everyone!
Today we had another day of great lectures in the morning and afternoon. We heard from a representative with AACO, Australian Agricultural Company, they are Australia's oldest agricultural company formed in 1824. They manage 600,000+ head of cattle and own 1% of Australia's land mass, about equivalent to West Virginia! WOW! We also heard from Peter Trefort on the sheep processing sector and he gave us an enjoyable insight into sheep processing. After dinner we had a sobering lecture on the cattle producers prospective. It is sad to see the Australian producers struggling and now wanting to change their old practices. On the upside, it is good to see the U.S. not following in this train of thought and is continually moving forward. Now for the rest of the night we will study and get ready for the start of the contest.

Till next time,

Chris

Cold in Australia??

6/30/10

 Hello all, sorry our entries have been so long coming, and all at once, but we have been flat out like a lizard drinking! We are staying at Duval College. It is REALLY cold here, compared to the other places we have been. It is in the teens at night and in the mornings, and somewhere around 60 during the days. The showers are really nice, except for the fact that your feet go numb, and will slightly freeze to the floor when they are wet. Today we sat through seminars. I got to meet a few new people during the breaks, and meet up with a few I met last night. There was tons of information! Two things I found very interesting, were how they hung some of their beef carcasses, and all their pork. They will in some cases actually hang the beef by their aitch bone, which helps make the beef more tender. The other super neat thing was that they hang the pork carcasses whole. They don’t split them at all. It’s actually a lot easier to evaluate the pork carcasses whole.  Hope all is well there, take care, and no worries!

Jaymes

6/30/10

Today was the first full day of the conference. It was pretty chilly in the morning, but not bad when you consider it’s the coldest it gets in the winter! Someone said it was -8 degrees Celsius. Had a variety of interesting lectures ranging from meat science to livestock production. A very interesting presentation by the CEO of JBS Australia…Interesting to hear the JBS success story. Also enjoyed a very interesting presentation by the Chief Operations Manager of AACo the largest cattle company in Australia. The company’s total land mass is 7.7 million HA, 1% of continental Austrialia’s land mass! The company’s largest cattle station runs 110,000 head of cattle and the company owns a total of over 500,000 head of cattle…pretty amazing! Getting ready for supper now…I’m sure it will be great!

Cheers,

Jessi

Cheers from Becky and Wade!

6/29/10

How ya goin’?

We started off the day with our third day of breakfast at McD’s. Then we headed off to the Cargill beef abattoir in Tamworth. Tamworth is the Country Music Capital of Australia, although sadly we didn’t get to hear any live music, this is where Keith Urban got his start! At Cargill we evaluated a few beef carcasses, ribs, short loins and some beef primal. After a meal and answered some questions, we headed down the street to the Peel Valley Exporters Lamb Plant. It was very interesting; I had not been to a lamb plant before so it was quite an experience. My favorite part of the lamb plant was getting to tour the plant from live animal to cooler. We also evaluated some lamb carcass classes and answered questions. We then traveled to Duvall College in Armidale. We will be here for 4 days, so we won’t have to live out of our suitcases. We had a good meal and played a little socializing game, more socializing and then to bed. We have had a really great time so far and will have a lot more to talk about when we return! More to come from Down Under

Cheers,

Becky

6/29/10

Today I woke up in the coldest bed I ever have. Whoever said Australia would be hot was so wrong! This morning it was -10 Celcius. After a quick “Brekkie” (Breakfast) at McDonald’s we headed to Cargill @ Tamworth to practice placing beef and eating and pricing classes. Beef is much different down here; I could write a whole essay on how it is but mostly they try to slaughter younger cattle that haven’t been grain fed.

After lunch we practiced and took a complete tour of Peel Valley Lamb Exports. This was very interesting; they slaughter 4200 a day and are only operating 1 shift.

We left Tamworth across the Great Dividing Range for Armidale (even colder than Tamworth). We checked into the contest and spent the evening eating and socializing with our new friends.

To sum it up, we have been having a great time, learning lots, and making friends that hopefully last lifetime.

Cheers,

Wade

Chris and Brogan!

6/28/10

G’day mates. This morning we started an “Early” day at 6:30 and like usual at the Golden Arches. After that wonderful breakfast we drove to the Primo’s Abattoir (beef plant). I learned that quality of Aus. Beef is a whole lot different than the states. They really like high yield beef with just about no marbling in the ribeye, which are very young and very small. After the shock of seeing the size of carcasses and the lack of marbling, we drove to the Caroona feedlot (JBS) and took a look at their operation. After that we drove to Big Pete’s house and had the time of our life. At Pete’s place we had a chance to buy kangaroo belts, and then we went outback and drove to a cabin and had a barbi. Pete’s father cooked up an amazing steak dinner and kangaroo tail soup, which is quite good! After dinner we found a rabbit and chased it around on foot, supposedly an Australian past time. This was possibly one of the most fun things I have ever seen and done! Well that’s all mates!

Chris

6/28/10

Hey everybody! Once again it’s good ol’ McDonald’s for “Brekkie” and as always it’s decent. Once we finished up there it was back in the vans and on our way to Scone, NSW, for our first experience in an Australian processing plant. This facility, owned by Primo’s is a beef slaughter facility that goes through 500 head of cattle per day with a total out of 1600 if a double shift was ran. This was our first shot at doing the Eating Quality Class and a refresher for carcass placing. After a couple hours there, we headed north to again and had another first when we went to the Caroona Feedlot. This was located in a rural area. It depended a lot on the locals to get their sorghum and whole cottonseed, since they don’t grow corn from limited water to feed animals. They can have up to 28,000 head in this JBS Swift operation and carry mostly angus, murray greys, shorthorn crosses, Herefords, and more heavily bos indicus influenced cattle to fill the gaps. It was funny when the silage they stored were completely covered because of a problem with kangaroos hopping across and poking holes in the packing! From there it was driving to the rest of the afternoon to Peter McGilchrist’s family operation.

Right away it was hard not to like anything, especially Doug (Peter’s Dad) came out with handmade belts from kangaroo hid! After milling around at the main house for awhile we went up to a cabin further in the hills to spend a little time cruising around looking at wallabies, kangaroos, and spotlighting rabbits to chase them on foot. Tell you what, when you see a tall person like Lander jumping hanging in the air for what seemed like ten seconds from the adrenaline rush, and then landing flat on the ground with the rabbit just out of reach is hilarious! Somewhere in all of this we went back to the cabin, enjoyed a campfire and some kangaroo tail soup. All in all it was a great time up there and we had to get in the vans to get to our hotel in Tamworth.

Catch you around like rissole,

Brogan

June 27th - Words from Jessi and Jaymes!

6/27/10

Got up early for a great McDonald’s breakfast! Thought I’d branch out and tried a Brekkie Roll (That’s Aussie talk for breakfast roll) Met the Murdoch team mid morning …A great group of GIRLS and three guys all named Peter. They are a pretty awesome and very entertaining group! After meeting up with Murdoch we headed out to the Carrigan Family Ranch (one of the Peters’ home place) The ranch was absolutely gorgeous … Lots of green and flowers in the yard (see Jaymes’ pics … it’s pretty clear Laramie natives don’t see that stuff often haha) After a great lunch of sausage we toured the ranch on the back of utes (utility trucks) …these things are EVERYWHERE down here and they’re pretty handy… I don’t think I’ve seen a legitimate big truck since I’ve been down here. On the tour of the ranch we saw lots of kangaroos, walaroos, and wallabys … the difference between the three has been explained numerous times by numerous people and it’s been different every time so I’m still not sure I understand, but they all look similar and hop.  We made it to Scone for the evening and dinner. At the suggestion of the Aussie’s I tried roast lamb and it was awesome!  They sure know how to cook their lamb down here. It was overall an amazing day! I’m pretty sure I could live down here!

Jessi

6/27/10

Today we met up with Murdoch University.  Jen was the one that picked us up. After we got loaded, Jen decided we couldn’t fit under the overhang, so she decided we would go out the in. The only problem is that the gates were down. So Jen told Lander to get out and jump up and down to open the gate. It was the greatest ice breaker ever, and one of the most comical things you have ever seen. He flailed his arms, in what looked like a terrible attempt at a figure skating move. He finally had to flag down a taxi to pull in and get the gate open so we could get out. Jen ended up taking a wrong turn or two, and nearly gave Lander a heart attack. We went to a fella named Peter Carrigans house. There we learned that there was only one guy on the 8 man team, and his name was also Peter. There is 3 Peters… Big Pete, the Coach, Medium Pete the judger, and Pistol Pete the assistant coach. They are 3 of the funniest people I have ever met. On Pistol Pete’s ranch, The White Rock Ranch, we saw out first roo’s, and wallabies. We took a big tour around the place and looked at most of their cattle.  Then we went to the Pub for dinner. In every pub, they have TV’s with Horse, Harness, and Greyhound races that you can wager on. I had Medium Pete teach me how it worked, and won $23 on my first $2 bet. I ended up on the winning side, making all my money back in addition to a 50 dollar bill. Lady luck was on my side! We are having a great time! It’s a great place with GREAT people!

Jaymes

We made it to Australia!

G’day Mates! The 2010 meat judging team sends greetings from Sydney, Australia. After leaving Los Angeles Thursday night around 11, we landed here at 6:45 Saturday morning. The plane we flew on was the biggest I’ve ever seen: double decker, 450 passengers, and almost 80 meters in wing span. Due to time change differences, we never got to experience Friday June 25, 2010. The flight was long but worth it in the end. We do much today besides study for the contest and walk around the city a little bit. Tomorrow we are meeting up with a team from Murdoch University and will tour a family farming operation.


Wade

Cheers! We made it to Australia! The 15 hour flight was quite the feat, however we were treated very well. The plane was very new updated with the latest technology. When we weren’t sleeping, there were movies, television, audio books and much more to keep us occupied. We were served two meals during the flight, which surprisingly wasn’t bad, and it was “free”. When we got into Sydney, we had to wait for a couple bags that came in on a flight about 15 minutes behind ours.

Once we collected our bags, we wondered around aimlessly looking for a way to get to our hotel. Jaymes asked about three different people how to get there, the reason he had to ask so many people is because he would forget the directions by the time he had to repeat it to us. We walked up and down the strip in front of the airport with all of our luggage, debating whether to walk or to take a cab. We decided to take a cab.

We walked around Sydney a little to find some lunch, walked up and down the strip of local shops about four times before we decided on what to eat. Part of the problem was that no one had Australian currency and none of the shops took Visa. I suppose that is enough for now, we are looking forward to meeting up with Peter McGilchrist tomorrow; he might actually know how to get somewhere!

From Down Under,

Becky

Welcome to UW Meat Judging blog!

This blog will be our contact of our trip to Australia. Please check back often for updates!