We began the day by visiting the Wagga Wagga Livestock saleyards. This was quite a new experience, the methods were very different than the traditional American yards. They have a very efficient way of staging cattle before coming into the first pen in the sale ring. Then, the lot will go to the next pen where it is actually sold, before going out into a holding area and then to the buyers pen. Auctioneering methods also differed, as the Australian auctioneer shouted numbers without the extra rattle sound to it. All lots were extremely cheap! We did a quick conversion and it was close to 85¢ per pound on average. The saleyards have a sale every Monday for cattle, with smaller lots than what we are used to. Sheep sales are every Thursday.
Next, we began the tour of the Cargill/Teyes facility. We got to tour the much Americanized abattoir, and then listened to a brief presentation. The boning room especially resembled American plants. Grading standards are very complex, and not even required for all cattle. That specific plant does 50/50 grass fed and grain fed cattle.
We stopped in Temora for lunch, and the group was very exciting about the free choice off the menu until they told us a quarter of it was out of stock. After lunch, we had some time to do some looking around. Prices are very high on ALL items, not just the alcohol!
We finished the day by visiting Jindalee Feedlot. All cattle are purchased on arrival weight. They run a 100 day probram, implanting them only once during that time. The cattle are fed twice a day, with 35% of the ration being fed at their sunrise feeding. 60,000 tons of wheat or barley are used each year! The cost of gain per kilo was roughly $2.05-2.20. We also learned that 95% of the catte there were eligible for Certified Australian Angus Beef.
Driving back to Wagga, we got to see a very pretty sunset with a lot of great photo ops that Wyatt was excitec about. =) Tonight, we are going to dinner at the Victoria Hotel, then possibly exploring Wagga's other hotels!
Much love,
~Kaycie
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