Day 7 Wagga Wagga Uni. (Australians call Universities....Uni's)/Sydney

We started our day off with some yummy breakfast at the City Park Motel.....some of us passed on the hot breakfast!We then met up with Dr. Peter Chenoweth, a former K-Stater whom moved down under to Wagga -Charles Stuart Uni six years ago (he joined us for dinner last night). He is in charge of the vet school. Speaking of the vet school...wow do they have some nice facilities! We met a couple of vet students whom were in their 5th year that had just completed a c-section....We like that hands on learning! The vet program is a 6 year program.O

On our bus ride to Sydney, we stopped for lunch....had a choice of KFC or McDonalds. Some of us are seeing some beautiful scenery and some others have seen their eyelids...lol!

We will post more later tonight or early tomorrow about our short adventure in Sydney....that's all for now mate!

We are back....we arrived in Sydney around 4:00pm, had only about an hour to hour and a half to quickly do some shopping. We then met back up and walked to the harbor for our dinner cruise. ...it was fabulous...we just all wish we could stay longer to enjoy the sights of Sydney.

What a great evening and nice room to stay in....finally!

Now we are headed to Caines which we hear it is 70's and rain...we are hoping not! We are all ready for warm weather!

No worries.....Good Day!

Day 5 and 6

Day 5...Trigger Vale White Suffolks and Poll Merinos/ Spry Shorthorn

Well, today we will be writing two blogs. We stayed in a very old motel in Wagga Wagga that was just lovely..ha ha....like Mary Ann and Ellen said the 3of us were staying in a "cottage" that didn't have free internet like the other rooms, leaky toilet, very little heat, smells like a wet dog lives in here, etc..needless to say it was very nasty and we are there for 2 nights!

Now that you know our nice accommodations, I will continue on with our blog....

It was a very foggy morning traveling to Trigger Vale Suffolks. They are the leaders in performance testing sheep in Australia. They were a great family and had very good sheep. For lunch we traveled to the "rock" and visited an emu farm. They are very aggressive at this time of this time of the year because it is mating season. You may see the females more aggressive than the males. Their beaks are not harmful but you oughta watch out for their web feet. We tried feeding them bread and some got close but some students freaked out and pulled back.

We then continued north to Spry families shorthorn stud. They are the premier shorthorn breeder in Australia. We were able to witness there top selling bull at$48,000 and he was very impressive.We finished the visit with a barby (BBQ). It was great to finish the day with a home cooked meal!


Day 6

We start the day with a quick shower because there is not enough hot water to go around and we wade through water because the toilet leaked all night. What a great start!

Our first visit started with a trip to the Wagga sale yards. The auctioneer did not have the typical chant us Americans are used to. Each commission company was allowed to sell 500 head in a hour. Today's sale included 2850 head and can't wait to show our friend Garren Walrod what the auctioneers and buyers look like here at the down under. We were able to visit the Cargill plant in Wagga and was surely more Americanized than the plant we visited a couple days ago(JBS). We finished the day off with the Cargill feedlot that currently feed 15,000 and a ration that was made up of 85% steamed flaked wheat.

Day 4...Lawson Angus/ Bonnie Doon Club / Lima Park

Today we visited two beef cattle operations who differed in their approach to raising cattle. The Lawson ranch is one of the largest and most forward thinking angus breeders in Australia. They focus on carcass traits, moderate cow size and raising cattle in a total forage environment. They work closely with the Gardner ranch of Ashland, Kansas and share many of the same breeding philosophy . The Lima park Hereford ranch bred cattle based on visual traits with little emphasis on EPD selection. The mature cows averaged close to 1600-1800 pounds. The manager said they recently sold a cow that weighed nearly 2400 pounds. That is a big beast! They also ran 3000 ewes in a terminal cross. We enjoyed touring the shearing barn because most of us have not seen a sheep operation of that size. Like always we have eaten too much today. Most people lose weight on international trips, not the case on this trip!!!!!

JBS / Webb Black Simmental

Day 3...JBS / Swift and Webb Black Simmental  We woke up this morning to rain and according to the weather they are expecting more rain and flooding. It sounds like it might even snow when arriving in Wagga Wagga in a couple of days. It has been raining all day and the temperature is approximately 45 degrees. So far,  today has been amazing! We were able to tour a beef and sheep slaughtering plant in Melbourne. They kill roughly 1,000 head of cattle and 5,000 head of sheep. The animals seemed to be trim,  grass fed and they are harvested at a lighter weight. We found the sheep process to be rather interesting because we have never witnessed anything at this magnitude in the states.  After touring the plant, we proceeded to DG Pub in a small town and had the best food since we left the states. As we travel the country to Seymour there are puddles of water standing all over the place.....a sight we have not seen in a long while!  Our next stop was Webb Black Simmental, in the pouring down rain. Good stop but limited because of the rain. The facilities were excellent. They had a lot burned up by the fires in 2008 and had to rebuild a lot on the farm. After our visit we found our wonderful hotel...ha ha ha....we are in a room that does not have a shower curtain....to say the least, not real good accommodations!Well, luckily we are only there for one night stay! So far the students have been great to travel with....we are one big happy family!

Australian Pics

Arriving in The Land Down Under

Well, this is our first blog on our adventure to Australia. We just took off from the KC airport about 30 minutes ago. It was a slow process getting checked in but we managed to get all our bags checked and seat assignments. The flight attendant welcomed our newest member to flying, Pake Ebert. He got his first wings for flying for the first time in his life....ah....how sweet! Well, we will be landing in the Dallas airport in about an hour. Then we have a three hour lay over in Dallas before boarding to LA. Until next time....Good Day!  Day 1...arrived in Melbourne We arrived in Melbourne after a very long flight of approximately 15 hours. We all sleep, watched movies, played games and got up a couple of times. We flew on a double decker plane, which was a very smooth flight. Upon arriving and getting all of us through customs, we met up with our tour guide Mr. Martin and our busy driver Ritchie. We ended up stopping at McDonalds for a bite to eat....let me tell you, we were not impressed with sausage flavoring in the sauage McMuffin and the coffee had some foaming action going on. After stopping, we then headed to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.  It took us approximately 1 and 1/2 hours to get there. We met up with two tour guides and then toured around to see some interesting animals. Our favorite animal to see was the Koalas which sleeps 12 hours at a time. It was a lot of fun to feed the birds as well.  Now we are headed to our hotel for our first shower in two days! Yea, we all need it! Then we meet up for a welcoming dinner around 7:30. Until we meet again... Day 2....National Livestock Identification/Brewery We started our day off on a "small" stroll to the government building for a presentation on the identification of livestock. On our way, we saw beautiful architectural  sights. Then  we tour the sights of Melbourne....toured a Catholic church which was built in the mid 1800's, took 40 years to build...absolutely breathe taking. Then had a stop at the botanical gardens which was wonderful. We then adventured on to the Carrolton Brewery, largest brewery in Australia. They make over 200  million liters a day. We all tasted different types of beer, a highlight for all the students!  We ended our evening eating at the Casino and then back to the hotel for some of us, we then hit the hay. Scott and I keep waking up at 3am because we haven't adjusted to the time change!   If you have tried to contact us earlier then today, we have had problems  with our data/ internet package. Our hotel did not have free Wifi.

This is my blog.