As one moves across the United States from state to state, people have different methods to doing things. This is just like how Australia and the United States is, different methods for different theories, and also by using the resources available to one. Both in the states and in the land down under we have a nifty little device, an Electronic Identification tag (EID), that goes in an animals ear that holds all the information needed for them. The only difference is, is that in Australia it is mandatory for cattle and highly recommended for sheep. With the help of an EID all the information of each calf is entered into one large data base that is controlled by one company.  You can read more about it at http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/farming-management/nlis . To myself I think that this is a very good idea, making it mandatory, where in the U.S. it isn't required. With this system a rancher may be able to look at what bull was with each  heard of cows and also may look at what vaccinations have been given to each calf. In Aussie, their main reason why it is required is because they are worried about Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). With this system they are able to track every animal, from when it is moved to the farm to when it is moved into the packing plant.  Here in the States we concentrate a lot on marbling. Well.... in Australia I don't think that they know what marbling is HA. They are more into hormone free grass fed beef where here in the states we strive for marbling! While we were across seas we saw one feedlot, which was owned by the packing plant. They keep the cattle for 100 days no matter if they are ready or not. They feed them a ration that consists of roasted wheat, cotton seed, cotton seed hulls, and a little ground hay in the starter ration. In the states we use more of a silage, corn, distillers, and ground hay and alfalfa. We also keep them longer if needed to meet the standards that the feedlot owner prefers. This also shows affect in the marketing part of things too! Most Australians prefer "natural beef" which is the grass fed hormone free beef where here in America we are looking for the most marbled steak that will be the juiciest off the grill.   Different countries have different tricks of the trade, in America we prefer beef over lamb where in Australia its vice versa. They also have different ways of keeping livestock records as a whole. Each country prefers different ways than others just as people have different ways of doing things. This trip was a once in a lifetime trip and a very educational one too! If you have the opportunity to go, GO! Stay Classy America! Schaake

Overall Impression/Analytical Review

This is my last blog....final wrap up about my Australian Adventure....I really enjoyed my time "Down Under". The friends I met, I will cherish for a life time. It was great to meet such a great group of people in the animal science department, I can't wait to start attending K-State in the Fall.

I noticed differences between Australians and Americans in the cattle industry. First, they are multi years behind in some aspects but ahead by using the E-ID system. Their E-ID system is all linked together so they can track the lifetime production of the beef animal. e-ID is not mandatory in the sheep industry but some progressive breeders are using it in Australia. Some Americans use a system similar to this but it is not linked like the Australians. If you look on their working chutes, they all are required to have this system. Secondly, Australia is very hilly and cattlemen have to adapt by grazing their cattle on the steep hills. America has hills but not quite like Australia. Thirdly, the difference between their sale yards and our sale barns. For example, the auctioneer yells the price rather than having a typical chant that we are used to.

To sum it all up, it was a wonderful adventure but I will not be eating too much chicken schnitzel, veal schnitzel, and/or fish and chips (fries) for a long while. I and several others were ready for a good ole' juicy american hamburger!

Good Day Mates.....No Worries

Warm Sunny Ocean?

Day 9 started off by boarding a small vessel to head to Green Island and from there we then would take another trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Now when most people think of the reef and beaches you think of nice sunny weather right? Wrong! It was a very dreary day! It started off by raining on and off all day and it took up until 2 p.m. for the sun to come out! We were all hoping that we would finally get a break when we got up north but I guess we were all wrong! The weather wasn't the only bad deal for the day but the boat ride was also rough, and i mean it was rough! It got so bad that a few people had to go up on the to deck to not bring their breakfast back up! I love roller coasters and that is exactly what the boat felt like, an hour long roller coaster! Once we were at the reef it was beautiful though! The sun had come up and the wind had died down, leaving a fairly warm and sunny afternoon! We all went snorkeling and a few even went scuba diving! I found that scuba diving was quite an experience and would do it again in a heart beat! While I was down there I got to see a shark, a ton of different types of pretty colored fish, and beautiful coral. After our adventure at the reef we took another hour boat ride home, which was rougher than the ride there! I know that there were a few of us that went air bourn on one wave! It was an adventure that I will never forget and I loved seeing how nature does it's thing over millions of years!Catch ya later.... Schaake

Boomerangs and Spears

Our day started off with a flight out of Sydney at 9:15 on another Quantas flight. It was a fairly long flight up to Cairns, which was roughly three hours. That flight was nothing compared to the last plane ride we were on, the 16 hour flight! Upon arrival we went to the Tjapukai Cultural Centre which was an Aboriginal tribe which stood for "People of the Rainforest." We learned how the tribals used to live and different methods that they used to use. We also learned how they were punished if caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing, for instance, watching their wife give birth to their child. They would be beat with a club to have a stick stuck through their leg and sawed back and forth to cut ligaments. While we were there we also had the opportunity to throw a few boomerangs and their hunting spears. Let me tell you, throwing a boomerang is WAY easier than throwing the spear. I got the hang of the boomerang but the spear, not so much! Following the weapons demonstration we were introduced to the didgeridoo, which is a long piece of tree that is hollowed out by termites and creates a beautiful sound when it is played right! Seeing how the natives used to live was very interesting to me because I like to live off of what nature has to offer. That rounded up our day that day and the following we were headed to a warm sunny place! Keeping it real,Schaake

Small Town Country Boy in Big Ole City

We started out the day by visiting Charles Sturt University, a very agriculture related school. They recently just built a new equine center and equine vet clinic. We had our own personal tour guide by the name of Dr. Peter Chenoweth, who actually was at Kansas State University for awhile. We also got to tour the sheep unit, and the highlight of there was getting to watch the very intelligent Kelpie round up and herd the sheep into a pen. The sheep unit had right around 5,000 sheep and they rotate grazing throughout all the pastures that are close to the university. We also visited the beef unit where we learned that pre-vet students actually practice everything that they may see in the field. They also had a very sweet set up to work the cattle. They had many chutes set up off of one alleyway and a make shift tub. I have also noticed that all their pipe is galvanized, therefore it won't rust. Following the visit we started our 5 hour haul up to Sydney. When we started to pull into Sydney, I thought it was maybe the size of Kansas City? Well needless to say I was most defiantly wrong! Ha! I learned that Sydney was like 3 times of KC, and lucky for this kid that some one A) knew where they were going and B) have had experience in big cities, or I would've been lost by now! My roommate and I decided that we could visit there but we don't think we could live here. After we did some shopping in Sydney we took a boat cruise around the harbor. The scenery was most defiantly better than the food! But then again I am kind of a plain Jane type of guy so the whole fancy nice food is just different ha!From bus to boat and small town to big city this ole country boy survived Sydney! The people were nice, hotel was amazing, and they beds were like we were sleeping on a cloud! We'll catch ya later,Schaake

Day 6 Wagga Wagga

The day started off by visiting the local Wagga Wagga Livestock Marketing Centre (LMC). Here we watched the Monday morning cattle sale. If we were to have come on Thursday we would've been able to see about 3,000 lambs run through the sale ring. It was an experience for sure! They way things ran over here are just way different than the methods back in the states. They split the ring up into 2 pens so the buyer can see the cattle before they actually sell. They also have most of their sorting gates run off of air powered cylinders. Then out gate was the thing that really amused me, it was a splitter gate that was ran off of air again and they had a little funnel gate that was also worked off of a press of a button. Our second stop was where the cattle go after they get sold, the packing house. We visited another packing house except it was a little more Americanized. Cargill had around 4 conveyer belts to cut and trim the meat. Their production line was a lot faster than the last one we went to. We were told that by the time a calf leaves the house it is about 4 days. After we saw the packing house we went to the feedlot for the grain fed cattle. This was also owned by Cargill, and was a decent sized feedlot. It has a license to hold 30,000 head of cattle but currently only has around 15,000 head. All the cattle there are implanted with an implant that is close to our Revlor S. The steers enter the feedlot for 100 days and then are sent to packing at the plant in Wagga Wagga. He tries to keep the yard free of heifers simply because the steers tend to do better. Their ration consists of ground hay, roasted flaked wheat, cotton seed, and cotton seed hulls. After 15 days at the yard the steers will go onto a finishing ration, which eliminates the roughage in it.My favorite part of the day was the feed lot because I work at one and I thought it was neat to compare how we do things in the states and how they do it here.Catcha all later..... Schaake

One extreme to another...

We started off be going to Trigger Vale sheep ranch. There we learned that he raised around 2,500 sheep, White face suffolk ana merinos. He showed us how the merinos had better fleece than the Suffolk's and we also felt how much softer that the Suffolk's were than the Marino's. We also learned that the Trigger Vale sheep ranch uses embryo transfer work and AI methods. They will AI about 200 lambs and will natural breed the rest. He said that he tries to breed for structure, muscle, and fat within the ewes. From there we went to a very interesting farm, an Emu farm! At this farm we learned that emu oil is worth $25 per kilo! In the pen that we lookednatbthere were about 100 emus in there and he said that he had around 200-300 emus on the farm! He harvesters about 10 kilos of fat from each emu and that is the major source of income from them. He also told us that he uses the feathers to make army plumes. To me I thought this was pretty neat to help support the army! After feeding the emus bread, that they didn't want, we had a BBQ, and let me tell you that thenAustralian's know how to have a BBQ! From the emu farm we went to a shorthorn ranch, where they had they had around 500. Sprys raised a bull that won the Sydney Royal. I was very impressed the by the quality of the cattle that they had! They then fed us dinner (a good ole steak) and then conversed with us for awhile.Today was a good day, we went from one species to another and with a little exotic birds in between! Catch ya later....Schaake