Saleyard and Cargill

This morning it was 7 degrees C when we hopped on the bus at 8 am! We are all looking forward to Cairns lol. We started today at the cattle sale at the Wagga Wagga Saleyard. Every Monday morning they have 3000 cattle sold and every Thursday they have a sheep sale with nearly 30000 sold! We sat in on the auction and it was very interesting. It sounds and looks a lot different than the U.S. I couldn't really understand the auctioneer lol. Glen Fordyce was the livestock agent who showed us around. He gave us so much information and was very helpful with our questions.

After that we travelled a long distance, of across the street, to the Cargill beef abattoir for a tour. It was more similar to the american processing plants than JBS. They have about a 50/50 split for grass fed and grain fed cattle. We weren't able to see as much of the inner workings as we were at JBS, but they explained a lot of their regulations and how/why they do things the way they do. I felt like I got a lot out of it in terms of the business side of things.

Our last stop of the day was an hour bus ride to a town near Temora for lunch, a little free time, then the Jindalee feedlot of Teys Cargill cattle. I personally don't know very much about feedlots so hearing about the Australian feedlot process first leaves a different perspective. I think it is very similar to our feedlots however. They have a 100 day program with mostly angus cattle and run 15000 head at a time. They are not HGP free which is a switch from what we've been hearing. They feel that is the most profitable way to run the feedlot. We were not allowed to take pictures there so unfortunately I only have mental photos for that part of today. Now we are headed back to Wagga Wagga for overnight then we have a tour of the Charles Sturt University tomorrow before our journey to Sydney!