Ranch life at Sandhill Farms

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend spring break at Sandhill Farms, a Hereford seedstock operation in Haviland, Kansas. Sandhill Farms is owned and run by the Schultz family, of which I attend Kansas State University with Tyler and Courtney, who are both studying Animal Science.

The Schultz Family. Such wonderful people! From L-R: Courtney Schultz, Brooke Warner (nee Schultz), Travis Warner, Tyler Schultz, Georgie Lawrence, Kevin Schultz and Vera Schultz.

At this time of year for the Schultz's, the calving season is coming to an end just as sale season is beginning! There is a lot of preparation that goes in to the Sandhill Farms annual production sale, selling bulls and females as well as commercial hereford and black baldie heifers. 

As I mentioned, it is bull sale season and the week started off with a short trip to Claflin, Kansas to attend B & D Herefords and Beran Bros. Angus bull and female sale.

Bull Sale Season!

The sale was held as a video auction where cattle were shown on a pre-recorded video and auctioned off accordingly. 

Rather than bringing the cattle into the barn, they were displayed on these television screens.

Some of the commercial cattle on the TV screens up for auction. The black baldie is a popular cross in this area.    

Days were spent checking cows that were due for calving, sorting through bulls for semen testing, vaccinating cows and sorting and tagging sale heifers. I also had the opportunity to go to the local sale barn as well as ride around with Kevin and Tyler, showing bulls to clients and learning about how they evaluate their bulls. Almost every day consisted of three jumpers, thermal underwear, a pair of gloves and a cold Kansas wind, but it was great fun!!

Moving some of the sale bulls.

This is what they call a semi in the US. The height of the crate from the ground is adjustable to allow for variation in slope when backing up to a chute, which I thought was pretty neat. 

This is Courtney guiding her grandfather Ron Schultz in to the chute before loading bulls.  

These corrals are portable and are a common sight about Kansas.

These are some of the Sandhill Farms commercial sale heifers on offer in the upcoming annual sale. I  caught them at feed time!

I went to the weekly cattle sale held in Pratt, Kansas and watched the sale of some young cattle. I was astounded at the money that young heifers made or at least for those that I saw being sold. Cattle prices are very high in the US at the present with the cattle population at a low since the 1940's. Young black baldie heifers with an average weight of 859 lbs (390 kg) brought US$1308/head. 

Young black baldie heifers at 839 lbs (390 kg) were making roughly US$1300/hd.

    At the beginning I could barely follow the auctioneer! Have a listen to this!

                        

               

I found the set up of the sale barn interesting. It was like I was sitting up ready to watch a movie at the cinema....only not. 

I got the opportunity to take so many photos on the beautiful Sandhill Farms property as well as see some American wildlife! Here are some of my favourites.

The heifer paddock at sunset.

This is an old American barn on the Sandhill Farms property.

My first sighting of an Armadillo!

This skunk didn't stink...which is rare so I'm told.

        

Driving on the wrong side of the road in a pickup!

A couple of the many calves born this season. These two were just chillin'.

It isn't called Sandhill Farms for nothing.

The sunsets. They were just beautiful.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience an American ranch this past week. The Schultz's are a wonderful family who run a very neat seedstock operation. It will certainly be one of my favourite experiences and memories to take back to Australia with me!

The K-State Legacy Sale - Bull & Female Sale

Last Friday, March 7th, Kansas State University purebred beef unit held their 37th Annual Bull and Female Sale comprising of Angus, Hereford and Simmental cattle. As part of the Livestock Sales Management class that I have been taking this term, the students were involved with the sale and the events leading up to and after the sale.

The 2014 Livestock Sales Management Class 
(Photo courtesy of Impressions By Brittney)

The sale is held to coincide with Cattlemen's Day, of which, this year was the 101st annual event. Cattlemen's Day included a trade show held in the Weber Arena in addition to information sessions that ran throughout the day. Some of the sessions included topics such as the 'Future of beef export demand' and the 'Cattle industry outlook'.

Dr. Dan Moser answering some great questions about Estimated Progeny Differences (EPD'S) at The Legacy Sale booth at the Cattlemen's Day trade show.

The trade show held in Weber Arena, with a live stream of the information sessions that were held in the lecture theatres.

From the 61 bulls that were offered, the averages are as follows:

• 35 Angus bulls/ US$4150
• 16 Simmental bulls/ US$3656
• 10 Hereford bulls/ US$3550

(The Stock Exchange, 2014). 

Salo! Salo! Salo! 61 bulls, 4 elite heifers, 17 females and 5 ranch horses were offered for sale.

I have a short video of the auction. I have to admit that I wasn't quite prepared for the 'entertainment' that the ringmen brought even though they were just doing their job. To all of my Australian friends - it's worth the watch to see how it is done in America!

And of course, what is a K-State event without Willie? Willie the Wildcat is the K-State mascot and he even made an appearance on Sale Day.

Willie the Wildcat, KSU Mascot made an appearance at the sale. 

FFA. Can we do it the Aussie way?

Since arriving here I have heard so many stories beginning and ending with 4H and FFA. Here it seems that it is just a part of everyday vocabulary. Most Aussies would have probably been flat out to have heard it at the very most let alone know what it may stand for. I know I was one of those people. This past week was National FFA Week, so I thought I would interview State FFA officer, Miss Elizabeth Allen and ask her all about it. Elizabeth is currently studying at Kansas State University and has been a member of the FFA for 5 years, beginning when she was 14 years of age. This week she has been travelling many miles to be in a different part of the state of Kansas each day to recognise National FFA Week 2014.

With history back as far as 1928, the National FFA Organisation has certainly become a strong traditional organisation that involves youth in agriculture. It was originally founded as FFA, Future Farmers of America, however, the name was changed to National FFA Organisation to recognise the diversity within the agricultural industry. With almost 580,000 members across the country and FFA chapters in 18 of of the 20 largest U.S. cities, I can understand why this organisation is so well known among my peers here in America (National FFA Organisation, 2014).

As part of high school, students have the opportunity to take agricultural studies, just as most students do in Australia. However, in addition to this, students can join the FFA which means that they participate in crew development events and supervised agricultural experience, which are proficiency based activities. This is then combined with classroom and laboratory hours to provide a rounded agricultural education.

Meet Elizabeth Allen, she is a very talented and confident young lady that exudes a passion for agriculture. When I asked her if we could chat about the FFA so I could learn more about it, she was more than willing to help me. 

Given that the majority of the people I have met in the last month since I have been here in the United States, are members of the FFA or similar, 4H, there has been many a question thrown at me asking if there is any similar organisation in Australia. Which makes me ponder the question myself...Why don't we have the FFA?

There has been much talk, particularly through social media outlets discussing education as a solution for bridging the gap between the city-country divide. The FFA and 4H runs through the veins of the people of my generation here in America. I saw a neat picture on social media describing FFA: It is Travel Experience. Work Ethic. Marketing. Boardroom Confidence. Preparing American agricultural enthusiasts for success. Most importantly, I have learnt that it is also tradition. We as Australian's are very fortunate to have a similar discipline and work ethic instilled in us, as part and parcel of being raised on the land, just like our American partners. But can we be doing more? I mean, for those children who are not as blessed as those who have had the opportunity to be raised on the land.

This picture was circulated on social media last week. I thought it was a neat way to describe FFA.
(Unknown author). 

I've given it some good thought about the things that we may do that are similar to these organisations here in the U.S. and I can't help but question whether us Aussies have been missing out on a golden opportunity to actively involve our youth in agriculture. Don't get me wrong, there are some very new and fantastic programs and initiatives that have kicked off in Australia for youth in agriculture. However I think that we could certainly learn from our American counterparts. The principles of FFA seem to be something that Australia could apply to create our own youth programs for agriculture. It is associated with school here in the United States, which is a fantastic idea, given that some students are not off the land and may find it hard to get in touch with agriculture outside of school. Elizabeth mentioned in her interview about schools that have students that are not predominantly from an agricultural background that have recently adopted the FFA program, which has to be a benefit to not only the students but also the future of the industry. 

I have been very very fortunate to be involved with some great local organisations that have allowed me to thrive and hopefully pursue a career in an industry that I am incredibly passionate about and for that I am very thankful. But what about those that don't live on the land? How do they get their start?? These questions have been raised before. However, has there been an answer to them? One cannot wake up, click their fingers and say, 'Today I am going to start a tradition'. It won't work like that. It starts with small steps and becomes something that people feel passionate about eventually giving it the strength to become tradition over generations. I feel as if we are missing an identity in agriculture that unites the youngsters in agriculture. For me, learning about these organisations, really gets the thought process going and how we can perhaps do something like this, that who knows, may start a tradition that defines our agricultural history in many many years to come.

While this is only a small introduction to FFA, I would strongly encourage that my fellow Aussie friends learn about it. Keep your ears open for it. It crops up more than you realise once you know about it! For all we know, we may be able to have the FFA, the Aussie way!

What does chicken do for you?

There's something I love about agriculture. Obviously. But often I have trouble describing it. I was once asked to give a presentation on 'What makes me tick?'. I like giving presentations. Those that know me, will understand me when I say that I can and will talk. But this one had me stumped. How do I expand 'well, agriculture, of course' and put it into a 15 minute presentation? Well I managed to put pen to paper and thought of all the times that something excited me about the industry and made me buzz. It was almost strange...I mean there's the obvious things, the lifestyle, the fresh air, the satisfaction and rewards from raising animals, but as I learnt, it's the small things that really make me tick. Here's one of them.

Today, I attended my beef systems class at KSU where we had a guest speaker, Hal Sankey, Vice President of Cargill Meat Solutions Beef Corporation. Mr Sankey gave us an insight into the company background as well as his own- he sat in the same seats as what my classmates and I were sitting in today. He went on to talk about how his parents were cattle producers and how they operated as a business. Then, we looked at the next stage of the production line and we did some calculations and went through some figures to find out just how limited the boundaries can be for cattle buyers buying cattle for slaughter. Based on some current figures, we found the importance of the carcass by-products, namely hides, to the packing plants.

Mr Hal Sankey, Vice President of Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation came to KSU to talk about beef pricing in our Beef Systems class. 

I guess what really made me excited was seeing the challenge that Mr Sankey has when buying cattle and selling beef. There is a fine line between making a profit or running at a loss. There was some great discussion about supply and demand as well as the option for packers to sell by-products. There were examples where packers could be breaking even on the beef but making dollars on the sales of by-products such as hides. Today, the value of hides have increased as countries become more affluent and purchase luxury items, such as cars with leather seats. We learnt that this has mainly been driven by China. Here's something though that I had never given a thought and I am pleased that I have learnt this: For every animal slaughtered, they can vary in size, weight, retail yield etc when talking about pounds of beef, but for every animal slaughtered, there is only one hide. Yes, the size and quality can vary, however, if there are 200,000 animals killed for example, there is going to be 200,000 hides. So this influences the supply and demand for these hides and hence the value that they are worth. Lower supply or higher demand for these hides, then make the beef processing all the more worth the while. Then think about how that can influence the price of cattle at the sale yards. Quite interesting really.

Anyway, so after some more discussion about these by-products, we moved on to the topic of other proteins. An interesting, but very thought provoking question was raised: What does chicken do for your family? At first I couldn't think of anything too much (other than the obvious that it provides nutrients for our bodies). Does poultry, for example, provide you with leather car seats and shoes for your children? It was this that really hit home to me for some reason. Suddenly I became excited and pleased that I am in the beef industry. It really is something to think about. Perhaps you'll think about it the next time you are dining out!

For me, this discussion really made me tick and made me think 'Yes. I am so proud to be in the beef industry and involved in agriculture.' Feel free to share what it is about agriculture, especially the beef industry, that makes you tick!!

NCBA Convention: The #followmetotennessee experience

Last week was by far my favourite since being here in the States. Last Monday, a crew of 35 K-State Collegiate Cattlemen and Cattlewomen boarded a bus, bound for the 12 hour drive to Nashville, Tennessee. There we attended the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Convention and Trade show, which was held from February 4th - 7th. The event attracted almost 8000 people, with 300 exhibitors in the trade show, that stretched across 5.7 acres. The convention included committee meetings, general information sessions as well as interactive question and answer sessions. Some of the events that I attended included:

• CattleFax 2014 U.S. global protein & grain outlook seminar
• General sessions
• Outlook session on the the architecture of consumer demand
• Collegiate leadership round table
• NCBA Young Producers Council meeting

In addition to this, there were plenty of opportunities to network and socialise, particularly with the Cowboys Night at the Opry, which featured Little Big Town, Diamond Rio, Sarah Darling and more.

The General sessions were among my favourite. These sessions included speakers Captain Richard Phillips and Archie Manning, who provided great inspiration as they talked about leadership and how they came to be leaders themselves. Captain Phillips' story was incredible - he was captain of the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia, when he was attacked by pirates and stuck in a lifeboat with them for days. Not only was his story courageous, but his message to us was that you just never know how strong you are until you are put into a position that presents risk and challenge. This had a strong connection as it is linked to not only farming families but challenges that the agricultural industry my face as a whole. From a different field again, Archie Manning, spoke about the leadership lessons that he had learned as 'a player, a businessman, and a father'. Archie is a 14-year veteran quarterback and has two Superbowl champion quarterback sons. This presentation was very personal and inspiring. Archie told us about his life and how he had to just step up and be a leader.

Captain Richard Philips sent a very strong message about the unknown strength within when in a leadership role. 

On the topic of leadership, the Peterson Farm Bros, famous for their farming parodies our proudly from Kansas State and were there to perform some of their songs for us. We were shown that this is an example of just how people of my generation are able to take a new direction in agricultural leadership. It really was fantastic to see that there was such great recognition given to those three young men. They have had millions of hits on YouTube for their parodies. Here is a link to Chore (Roar Parody), one of their parodies that they performed for us at the General Session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toyN81wZzLw

The Peterson Farm Bros did a great job entertaining the audience as well as demonstrated the fantastic job they are doing as young leaders in the agricultural industry. 

The CattleFax Outlook was very interesting. There were many keynote speakers who gave presentations on outlooks for the economy, weather, protein and grain for 2014 for the U.S. and their competitors. Some of the key notes that I took away from this was for the year 2014:

• strong inflation of beef in China as both a luxury and key item
• Australia's export of ground beef to China to keep tightening America's supply to China
• reduced domestic beef production
• 78 million more global consumers
• the Chinese 'middle' class of 300 million will increase to 640 million in the next 6 years
• the US and South America should be set for a reasonably good year weather wise, while unfortunately El Nino will continue to influence the Australian weather pattern

The Collegiate Leadership Round Table was a great event to attend. It included leaders such as John Stika, President of Certified Angus Beef, Forrest Roberts, CEO of NCBA, Craig Huffines, Executive Vice President of the Hereford Association and Dr. Molly McAdams, a guest speaker at NCBA who has had more than 20 years experience in research, brand marketing and product development. This was an interactive session that enabled us to answer questions about strategies that we can use to be good leaders and also have open discussion about leadership experiences.

University students deep in discussion at the round table with Dr. Molly McAdams. 

The Young Producers Council meeting featured guest speaker Luke Snyder, who spoke about his life and career as a professional bull rider and how he worked to win the 2001 PBR Rookie of the Year and then the Last Cowboy Standing title in 2011. There was a lot of focus on his key drivers for motivation, as well as keeping a balance to his personal life and career as a bull rider. He also spoke about how important role models were when he started and how important they are now that he has finished bull riding.

Professional bull rider, Luke Snyder presenting at the Young Producers Council meeting. 

The trade show covered every aspect of the beef industry one could possibly think of. One of the many booths that I stopped to visit was the Certified Angus Beef booth, where there were demonstrations on breaking up beef carcasses. In addition to this, there were Certified Angus Beef appetizers around the whole trade show for everyone to sample. I was able to meet John Stika, the President of Certified Angus Beef and some of the people that work there.

Breaking up beef carcasses attracted many visitors to stop by and ask questions about different beef cuts. 

As you can see, it was a great week in Nashville and I must thank the Collegiate Cattlewomen from Kansas State University for hosting me on the trip. These women all have an interest in agriculture and in particular the welfare of the beef industry. They work together as a group to 'agvocate' through promotion of beef products throughout the state.

The Kansas State Collegiate Cattlewomen stop to get a photo with the Peterson Farm Bros, from Kansas also.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Forsyth.

The American life!

My second week here at Kansas State University has been a blast. This week I certainly got a taste of the American life. However, there was a hint of 'Aussie' in there.  The Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging team arrived in Manhattan, Kansas for dinner and training with the American Intercollegiate Meat Judging team. I was lucky enough to join them and it was so good to meet new people interested in the meat industry as well as hear some familiar Aussie accents!!

Two of the members from the Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging team, Laura Kemmis (Charles Sturt University) and Fred Broughton (University of New England) and myself dining at a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan with the American Intercollegiate Meat Judging team. 

Tuesday night, I attended a mens basketball game- Kansas State University vs. Texas Tech University. I was absolutely blown away at the support the fellow students had for their team and watched the K-State team win that night! The lengths that they went to included a band, cheerleaders, commercials, contests and chants...the atmosphere was incredible!

Getting ready to watch the basketball game, K-State vs. Texas Tech.

This week the stand out of my classes was in livestock sales management. We had a guest speaker, Mr Kent Jaecke, who graduated from K-State University with an animal science degree. He took the same class as I am taking now and told us how he got to be where he is with his business today. His business, Focus Marketing Group, works 100 sales annually and markets purebred, commercial and show cattle. He told us how he has had to move with the times and diverge from traditional sales by public auction and turn to the internet. He has found a great market for selling cattle online and offers a service to cover all marketing associated with a sale. Although he quoted Mr. Stanley Stout, 'that there was no better way to tell the true value of an animal than by putting it up for public auction', he has found now that with the shift in producers reducing their cattle numbers in align with an ageing farming community, that holding a public auction is not viable for some producers. So, in turning to the internet, he has found that producers can market and sell their cattle online without the cost of holding a public auction. Mr Jaecke, will be back at K-State university next week to demonstrate the services of Focus Marketing Group, when the K-State cattle will be prepared for the catalogue for their annual bull and female sale in March.

Kent Jaecke, Focus Marketing Group, giving the livestock sales management class an inspiring presentation about his career in the livestock industry. 

Next week I am heading off to Nashville, Tennessee with the Collegiate Cattlemen and Cattlewomen from Kansas State University to attend the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Convention and Trade show. This event is the oldest and largest convention for the cattle business so I am very excited to be attending.

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!!

My Royal Showgirl Experience

Attending the Sydney Royal Easter Show as a State Finalist in The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl Competition would have to be one of the best and most memorable times of my life. I always had always aspired to be a part of the Royal Show as a showgirl and in 2010 I did just that. The year prior to that, I won the local showgirl competition at the Kempsey Show. The following year, in my first year at university I was a Zone Showgirl finalist at Gloucester. I was very excited as I prepared for the State Finals at the Sydney Royal Show.

The competition involved many aspects, including public speaking skills, personality and rural knowledge-anywhere from a local to a national and international level, after all, the aim of the competition being to find a rural female ambassador for NSW. There were many functions that we attended where we were able to meet many distinguished people who were involved in agriculture or involved with the Sydney Royal Show.

Overall, I had some fantastic experiences. However, one of the highlights for me was visiting the Westmead Children's Hospital to deliver showbags to the many children that weren't able to make it the Easter Show. This is where a fellow showgirl and myself were about to be shown how precious life and good health really was. We were in the oncology ward and were handing out showbags left right and centre, putting smiles on the children's dials. It was upon meeting a young boy, no more than three years old I'd say, that we felt so moved. We had a selection of showbags for the little boy to choose from who was suffering Leukaemia at the time. He got so excited he grabbed the Ben10 showbag off us and begged his mother to put his new Ben10 watch on his little wrist. His mum did so and then proceeded to ask him what the time was. "37.8" he said. For a moment there I was stunned wondering how this young child knew about decimals. It wasn't until a little while later that his mother explained to us that he has his temperature taken everyday and watches the nurse look at her watch and read out his temperature. This made me feel saddened that this disease was part of this little boy's life but in other respects made me so happy that I was able to bring a small bit of excitement to some very ill children. I think the showgirl visit to the hospital is very symbolic of the compassion and selflessness that is displayed by everyday people in rural Australia in times when support is needed.

There was so much fun had in the week that I spent with my fellow showgirl finalists at the show. We went to The Land at Camden and saw how the newspaper is produced. We also learnt about the history of agriculture in Camden as well as visited the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute which was very interesting. There were many functions at the show that allowed us the opportunity to meet some very well respected people.

The showgirls had the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the district exhibits. The work that goes into these exhibits is incredible!

I would strongly recommend this competition for young women that are passionate about agriculture. It really motivates you and inspires you to work hard to better the industry of which there are so many people that are so proud of it! I know I had the best experience and I want more young women to be able to share the same experience that I had.

Meat Science: looking at marbling in hot-boned beef carcasses.

For the past 12 months as part of my final year of rural science I have been working on an honours project in meat science. Since I have been wrapping it up in the last little while I thought I would share it with you!

At the moment there is industry interest in determining the financial benefits of hot meat processing (hot-boning) as opposed to the more conventional methods used in Australia (cold-boning).

Hot-boning is gaining interest because of potential environmental and economical benefits. Hot-boning involves the removal of meat (muscles) from the carcass prior to chilling. The advantages in this is that the only parts of the carcass that are chilled are those that are edible. This reduces the space needed for chilling and means that the space can be used more efficiently. This then has flow on effects for the reduction of energy consumption and associated costs. There is also less weight loss with hot-boning as meat is packaged before chilling as opposed to cold-boning where carcasses are subject to evaporative losses through chilling.

Currently, cold-boning plants utilise trained meat graders to visually assess marbling (intramuscular fat), which is a standard practice. This is a problem in a hot-boning scenario because the fat is not in its solid state and cannot be seen with the naked eye as easily. So.... there has been investigation in my experiment into the use of CT scanning to assess marbling. This idea raised the questions though, can the CT scanner accurately detect the marbling in the meat at different temperatures and is there a solid relationship between MSA Grading (visual assessment), chemical fat analysis and CT analysis?

Whilst the visual grading method is used for chilled carcasses, it is a subjective measurement. This experiment looks at using technology such as CT analysis as an objective measurement of marbling in a hot processing plant situation.

Whilst the results are at a preliminary stage, I am very excited that I will have contributed to an industry project!

In a nutshell, these photos explain what my project was all about. Check them out!

Many hours were spent in the chiller doing temperature trials- best place to be in summer!

Ever had a CT scan? This is the same scanner used for humans!

Certified Australian Angus Beef was used in my experiment!  All I wanted to do was eat it!

This is just one of the thousands of scans that were analysed. You can even see the marbling (dark grey streaking) right away!