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