Week one of America!!

For those of you who may follow my blog site, you will have noticed that I started blogging not all that long ago, as part of a scholarship selection for the Semex Genetics Angus Youth Kansas State University Scholarship. Late last year, I found out that I was the successful recipient and I was absolutely over the moon! So I spent the last couple of months preparing for my once in a lifetime opportunity. As part of my acceptance of the scholarship, I will be writing a weekly blog for those who may be interested in following me as I learn about and tour the American beef industry.

So, it is with pleasure that I write my first blog about my first week in America!

Just a week ago I boarded to leave for the United States of America. My first day was spent at the National Western Livestock Show in Denver, Colorado. I instantly noticed the huge scale of this show in comparison to our large agricultural shows in Australia. It certainly was an eye-opener! I stopped by and watched the angus cattle judging section, as well as went and saw the amount of preparation and fitting that these animals are given. Another interesting thing that I noticed was the length of their coats, they looked like teddy bears compared to the coats of our Australian cattle!

Day 2 was a 7 hour drive from Denver to Manhattan, Kansas State. The country was extremely flat with wind turbines which were a regular sight to see!!

Kansas State University is where I will be learning about the American beef industry for the semester!

 Below is a picture of the abattoir that is at the university. It is designed for lamb, beef and pork and students can put the skills they have learnt, in to practice. There is also a feedlot, feed-mill, dairy, seed stock operation, commercial beef operation, rodeo arena and so so much more!! Last Thursday I met up with Peter Parnell, Chief Executive Officer at Angus Australia and we toured some of these facilities. I also had the chance to meet Dr. Larry Corah from Certified Angus Beef- over some American Angus steak of course!!

 

This semester at Kansas State University, I am taking classes in beef science, ruminant nutrition, grazing livestock nutrition, cow calf health systems, beef systems management and livestock sales management. Livestock sales management involves the planning, promotion and production of a stud sale, while beef systems involves producing a business plan for a cow-calf operation as well as visiting different enterprises around the state that are involved with the beef industry. So far these units prove to be very interesting!!