Hey That's Pretty Neat

Day 3 is a rainy one. They said on the weather this morning they plan to get as much rain as they normally do the entire month of May in the next two days! Makes it pretty difficult for us, as we had a plans to look at cattle. Guess I should have brought my muck boots. 

 Had an awesome experience at JBS Australia. They were extremely inviting and friendly and a great group of people to meet. We got the chance to see every facet of their operations which is hard to do...so shout out to them for giving us that chance!  A lot of what they do is very similar to the states, but it was obvious from the beginning that they utilize a lot more of the carcass then we do. Parts like the head meat and muscle surrounding the vertebrae they use, while we would throw it out. The biggest contrast was the leanness of their cattle. Even those that have been grain fed are starkly trimmer than American cattle. But I have noticed that they are much more health conscious here, so I'm sure it's consumer driven. Kind of the same thing is happening back at home right now. 

 JBS is well spread out over eastern Australia. The Brooklyn facility we visited harvests 1000 cattle and 3000 sheep per day. A lot less than our plants! This was my first chance to witness lamb harvests since its virtually non existent in the US. They had some really neat automated equipment that made the job much faster and easier. It was clear that they were on the edge of innovation for Australian packing facilities! JBS is the sole supplier and packager of all the meat sold in Coles Grocery Store. Which is one of the two largest grocery chains in the country. Out of the 1000 cattle they process daily, a certain amount is set aside for Coles, and the balance is then exported (mainly to the EU). The EU has a high demand for Australian lamb and beef because of Australia's willingness to adopt and implement the no HGP (hormonal growth promotant) policy. Nearly all of Australian producers do not utilize implants, which goes against everything the American cattle industry has done for the last 20 years. Just goes to show the type of world we are living in and how doing things differently then we used to is going to become normal soon!

 Next we visited Webb Black Simmentals near Seymour. These guys are top of the line for sure. They have been sourcing Simmi genetics from the US for about 5 years now and have pretty much jumps tarted the Simmental breed in Australia. For years the red Simmentals have been popular and because of the extreme heat black hided cattle aren't normally accepted. But the quality of their cattle is too hard to ignore. They have singlehandedly raised the popularity of the breed and are doing some neat stuff. They run about 250 spring and fall calving cows and have an annual bull sale every March. If your ever in Australia, definitely need to stop by. They will show you some good cattle and fill you full of drinks! Almost back to the hotel. I'll have another blog tomorrow.

Stay classy America