NLIS the up and coming thing... I hope

NLIS  electronic tag

   One of the things that I found to be the most impressive while in Australia was the NLIS (National Livestock Identification System), or more so the lack of such a system in the United States. As I talked about in one of my previous blogs while in Aussie talked about how impressive this whole electronic documentation system is. Although there was a decent amount of resistance from farmers in the beginning, there seems to be a almost unanimous agreement now that the system is a benefit to all parties involved. The frequency emitting tags that are now mandatory for all cattle that move to a new property can be programed to transmit a broad range of information about that specific animal. This is much more effective and efficient than the traditional paperwork based system.

Tony Britt - Director of Animal Health and Welfare

   All of this considered, the question that comes to my mind is why doesn't the United States have a similar system in place? The only draw backs that I could find were the cost of the tags and equipment as well as the work it would take for a total transition to occur. The tags cost around $1.09 AU dollars a piece which would be a bit more expensive than in US dollars, and the reading wands start around $2,500- $3,000. This considered there would be a large initial cost to farmers which would not go over very well. I, however, think that over time the benefits would out weigh the costs of switching to a much more modern system. Some trucking companies in Australia have made reading tags and in turn documenting each cow being sold a part of their services with readers on their trucks.

  The director of Primary Industries for agriculture in the state of Victoria predicts that the tags will be a requirement for sheep as well with in the next year. So if Australia will soon have two species documented under a national electronic system it makes me wonder if the U.S. will soon follow suit, and I would hope that we do.

Looking back on my trip to Aussie there isn't a single thing that I would change except perhaps make it longer and change the weather on a few days, but that's just getting picky on my part. the trip as a whole was defiantly a experience of a lifetime that I am glad I was able to share with a great group of people. I was so excited to finally be in the trip it took the first day and a half for me to finally come to terms with actually being in Australia. Touring the Healsville Sanctuary was a great first taste of both the wildlife and the people but the first major impact for me was when we had dinner at La Camera. Both the menu and some of the differences in word meanings made it finally seem real that we weren't in Kansas anymore. This as well as meeting with the head of Primary Industries and learning about the impressive National Livestock Identification System in place were two of the biggest impacts and first impressions I had.

My birthday at Gilligan's

    Although I can't pick a favorite, the farm visits were a very high ranking portion of the trip. All of the visits helped me gain a little more insight as to what the average rural Australian family or farm are like, something that just touring the main tourist sites would never convey. Going off the beaten path and staying in small cities like Wagga Wagga and Albury were also a favorite part of the trip. although the hotels may not have been quite up to par with those in Sydney and Melbourne, but locals were very welcoming. They all were people that our group could connect with more since we had small towns and or agriculture as common backgrounds.

Dinner cruise in Sydney

  Towards the end of the trip were some of the most memorable and fun times, especially when the whole group celebrated my birthday at Gilligan's in Cairns as well as surprising me with a cake at dinner. The most indescribable sight we saw, however, would have to be the Great Barrier Reef namely the bottom of it while scuba diving. As soon as we returned home, as a matter of face before we even left I was ready to go back and do more exploring in what had quickly became my favorite place I have ever visited. I can only hope to go back someday and spend some more time in Sydney and go out to the Reef and Green Island again for sure. 

Our scuba diving group

Last day in the land down under

This was one of my favorite days of the entire trip, looking back on it I still can't hardly believe that we actually were on the ocean floor in the Great Barrier Reef. We started off the day getting on a boat that took us to Green Island where we spent two hours on the beach and getting our crash course on scuba diving. Even though it was raining and not that warm we had we still made the best of our time and adventured around the island. I found myself having multiple photo shoot with many of the Asian tourists. Not understanding why so many people wanted pictures I asked one of the fellow KSU students that had been to China and she explained that for them it was a rarity to see people with blonde people so it was a goal of theirs to get a picture with a blonde american girl.

From there we took another hour ride to the Reef where we spent the afternoon scuba diving, snorkeling, and going down in a semi-sub. After getting used to the pressure change, scuba diving was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had my whole life. None of my pictures do the coral or the fish justice.  The only downfall of the day was getting a little sea sick on the boat because the waters were pretty rough. Three Thirty the next morning came way to early, no one was anywhere near ready to get up and no where near ready to come home.

My Birthday!

Day 8

May 30th

Fire making

Most of the day today was spent in the air for us as we had a three hour flight to Cairns in Northern Tropical Queensland. We arrived around noon and then went to the Tjapukai Aboriginal cultural center. Highlights included boomerang and spear throwing demonstrations,  a didgeridoo performance, and hunting / natural foods lessons. It was very entertaining to learn and practice throwing the spears and the boomerangs from real indigenous people. 

Boomerang throwing

The weather hasn’t been in our favor however, it has been raining off and on since we got here which hasn’t made for the best sight seeing but hopefully things will clear and warm up before we hit the reef. Tonight we are heading to a bar called the Salt club that is known world wide. The next on our agenda is dinner at The Fish which is said to be the best place for sea food in the city. Last but not least we will be hitting the downtown area to celebrate my birthday and one of our last times out in Australia.It’s hard to believe that we have been gone for eight days, especially since we didn’t get a May 22nd with the international date change.  

My Birthday cake!

Travel and more travel

Day 7 May 29th

We started off the morning at Charles Strut University and met with Dr. Chenoweth, who used to be at KSU so he was very excited to have us come. We toured their Agriculture department which was interesting to compare this developing  school to what we have back home. We were able to go to the beef equine and sheep units as well as the Veterinary teaching hospital. Their building was built in 2002 so it was interesting to see a newer facility and their idea of what the best set up was. One difference that I noticed other than it being on a much smaller scale than KSU was that their program was a much more hands on program instead of mainly lecture until the last year. another highlight was that we got to see a sheep farmer and his Kelpie in action. 

The college sheep professor in action

After the 5 hour bus ride to Sydney we were able to get out and do some shopping and exploring before going on a dinner cruise. the cruise took us around the harbor where we had a spectacular view of the opera house as well as downtown and the light show. It was a great picture opportunity and something that many of us had never done. Afterwards we went to explore some of the local pubs as well as catch up on some more shopping. Sydney is definitely one of the largest cities I have ever been in and reminded me of New York City a lot, a fun place to visit but not somewhere I could stay for a long time or live. We now are on our way to the airport to catch a flight to Cairns for some beach and snorkeling time. 

The Wagga Wagga Auction

Today was a full spectrum view of the Beef industry, this morning we headed off to the Wagga Wagga Livestock Market Center and were able to watch part of the Monday cattle sale where 500 cattle are auctioned every hour. Sheep are also auctioned at the same site but only on Thursdays. It was a very different set up and procedure than what we have back in the states. There were two pens in the auction area, one for the current and one for the next cattle as well as screens that displayed the stats on the sold current and next cattle.

Afterwards we went to Teys Cargill and listened to a presentation about Cargill Australia as well as went on a short tour. We weren’t able to see near as much of the plant as we were able to see at JBS which was some what disappointing but we did get to see the offal room where organs such as the abomasium as well as the omasium as well as the tongue are processed for export. Their boning process was pretty similar to what we do in the US which would make sense because Cargill came to AU from the states. 

An interesting method of hauling that isn't uncommon in AU

We had lunch in Tamora as we made our way towards the Jindalee feedlot where were were able to tour their 15,000 head facility. They don’t do any custom feeding which means that they only buy cattle instead of feed for other people. The pens were slightly different from typical feedlots in the states, they didn’t have any mounds and some had tarps on overhead structures. Their major commodities are steam flaked wheat, cotton seeds and cotton seed hulls. it was interesting to hear about how they didn’t have close enough access to distillers grains to be able to use them profitably. We will stay another night in Wagga Wagga and be able to enjoy the first free wifi we have had the whole trip again. Tomorrow we will take a 5 hour drive to Sydney and begin our adventures in the Northern part of the state. 

 Part of the Jindalee feedlot

Put it on the Barbie

The view from the Emu farm

Tom the lamb

The day started out at theTrigger Vale sheep farm. In my opinion this was the first true family farm that we visited. We got to meet and visit with the whole family, even the kids as they paraded around with a lamb that they had kept aside for special nursing. IT was very interesting to listen to the talk about their view on how much fat ewes should have as well as how that correlated with reproductive efficiency. Most of the main stream sheep industry want all sheep to be as lean as possible because of thee push for leaner meat. The approach at Trigger Vale however was to incase reproductive efficiency by giving the ewes more of a reserve to help support themselves as well as the lambs. 

Some of the Emus fighting

The barbie at the Emu farm

We then moved onto what proved to be one of the highlights of the day, a visit to a Emu farm. They are in their breeding season so they were very territorial and aggressive. The males make a drumming sound while the females made a grunting sound.  Contrary to many other species, it is the females that are more aggressive. The main product that they profit from these strange birds is the oil. they also use the feathers, leather, and meat to some extent. The oil comes form the fat and a special process that requires expensive equipment is required to do so. They hosted us for lunch and we were able to experience our first true Australian barbie of sausage and steak. 

Shorthorn Bulls

At the second barbie

Our last stop of the day was to Sprys shorthorn ranch a leading seed stock operation for the area. The bulls they had were some of the most impressive that we had seen the whole trip and we were able to go in the paddock with them and get a good look at each bull as well as hear individual information about each. We had the privilege of getting treated to another home cooked meal of steak on the barbie accompanied of course by beer and wine since water isn’t a normal drink to have with meals anytime we want it we have to make a special request. Today was a great day to get to became more personal with the locals and enjoy food that wasn’t from a restaurant. We are will stay two nights in Waga Waga before moving on to Sydney on the 29th.