Voyage Awaits Us

           Less than a month before we venture across the great blue sea.  I joined this crew of voyagers a little late in the process but have learned lot about the Australian agriculture system.  It was interesting to be able to compare that of Australian culture of way of doing thing to that of ourselves as animal producers.  From over sized flightless birds to criminals taking over the continent by storm.  Australia is a very interesting place in the world and here are some tid bits that i picked up while in class.

• History
• Australia is the only country to govern a whole continent.
• Was established by convicts that were shipped over there by King George and they started convict colonies.
• Aborigines were the natural habitats of this country, but captain James cook Founded the coast of Australia. That is until he ran into the Great barrier Reef.(biggest Reef in the World)

• Gov/society
• Current Prime Minister is Julia Gillard, but still consider Queen Elizabeth II to be the queen of Australia.
• 95% of there legal voters cast their ballets!!!!!  We don't even have half that here.
• Have a flat tax rate.
• Currency rate is $1=$.935  but this will fluctuate over time.
• Mining and Agriculture make up 57% of the countries exports
• National debt is 2.1 trillion compared to the U.S. of 15.3!!!!
• Agriculture
• Almost all farms are family owned and operated equalling about 134,000 of them that nearly fulfill the Australian daily food supply
• Crops= Wheat, Barley, and sugar cane
•  Beef Herd is around 28 million head compared to the 92 million in the US
• A large number of these animals are grass feed on thousands of acers(hectares)
• 2nd largest beef exporter behind Brazil. The most impressive thing about these exports is that a vast majority of these are live exports!

• Australians take there beef production seriously.  Especially of those that have a branded product. Visit Campbell beef at http://www.campbellfoods.com.au/index.html
• Have a large market in veal production
• I have never had lamb before and i am sure that i will get a chance with this trip seeing how Australia is a huge lamb and mutton producing country.  They run around 72.74 million head.
• It is also very interesting that some of there bigger feedlots and packing plants are nearly next to each other

There are so many things that i look forward to do and learn on this trip that i am so very privileged to go on.  I believe for me that most interesting thing will be the opportunity to see what other producers in the industry.  I want to learn how there live export business can work for them with the increasing over head costs with fuel rising so much.  I want to learn alongside my class mates how we as American meat animal producers can fall into different markets and answer the needs of new customers.

500 words exaclty  Schaake