Livestock and Meat Evaluation (LME) started the week off on a good note, as per usual. We spent some time in the classroom discussing lamb carcases before heading next door to make some notes and take fat estimates. I still can't get over how good of a learning resource it is to have the classroom next door to the chillers! After finishing class for the day, I got myself to the Purebred Beef Unit where practice for the Little American Royal (LAR) was happening. As the show was less than two weeks away, we spent a lot of time with the heifers this week, from teaching them to tie up, leading, brushing, responding to a show stick, washing and blowdrying - we got pretty much everything covered throughout the week!
On Tuesday, for our Beef Systems class, we had Dr Peter Anderson speak to us, who is the Midwest PMS, LLC Director of Research. Dr Anderson discussed macro and micro industry trends and gave an insight into the future of the US beef industry. It was a great presentation and I learnt about the potential changes in consumer thinking and how we are to combat rising health issues in cattle, particularly in feedlots.
Wednesday was yet another day for LME to teach me something! Over the next few weeks, we are to undertake a feedlot simulation, where we are paired up with another student and given a variety of different groups of cattle to buy for our feedlot. With these groups of cattle, we had to decide how we thought the cattle would perform in terms of daily gains and health, for example. In the coming week, we would have to calculate break evens on all the different options and then participate in an 'auction' to purchase any cattle we wanted, but at the right price. To get the basics down pat, we started by working through some break even examples to test our maths skills before we are being set loose on our actual break evens next week - stay tuned to see if my partner and I buy 'swamp' cattle (tropical breed in the southern US) or holstein steers, or play it safe with the Baldies.
On Thursday morning, myself and a couple of friends headed into town for a nice breaky at a local cafe, and its safe to say that although I don't need the potatoes (that come with every meal) for breakfast, I'm not complaining! Following breakfast, I got ready for my Beef Systems field trip in a few hours' time. We piled into the mini buses and drove a short way out of Manhattan to Downey Ranch, owned and operated by Barb and Joe Downey. I had previously met Barb at the Stockmen's dinner a few weeks earlier so it was nice to see a familiar face. We drove out into the paddocks to watch a low stress stock handling moving system that has been incorporated into the Sandhills Calving scheme at Downey Ranch. Once we'd found a good vantage point, we watched on as Joe and his daughter moved through a couple hundred cows. The aim is to get the cows who haven't calved moving to the next paddock while leaving any cows that had calved in that paddock. As this moving occurs weekly, calves are up to one week old in the pasture before the cows without calves are moved on. This system is designed to reduce the microbial load on newborn calves from older calves, which can have a detrimental affect on the newborns' health as well as cause scours. Since incorporating this system, Downey Ranch has significantly reduced scour problems and now spends more time on other important tasks, rather than driving around treating calves. We made our way back to the main ranch buildings where Barb explained another interesting concept - bale grazing. As most producers here grow and bale their own hay, there is the need to move this hay into a storage area for the winter. However, the Downey's have completely flipped the idea on its head and in saying that it is doubling handing to bring the bales in to just take them out to feed again, have come up with a better concept. They simply leave the bale in the paddock where it is dropped from the baler and plant their winter crops around the bales. Then, using electric fence, they intensively graze each bale and a small area around the bale for a couple of days at a time. Although there is a small amount of wastage this way, the manure is put back on the paddock, the cattle are working in the organic matter and time and money is saved by leaving the bales where they are. A very interesting and seemingly effective method!
Saturday rolled around and I saw all four seasons in about four hours. The morning went from sunny, to raining, to snow and wind - welcome to Kansas they say! Despite the weather, I got myself ready for yet another bull sale. Dr Corah picked me up and we made our way to Fink Beef Genetics, a little drive out of Manhattan. I had been to Finks with my Beef Systems class in my first week at K-State and really appreciated their philosophy, so I was keen to see how the sale went! After being treated to a great lunch as a courtesy of the Little Apple Brewery in Manhattan owned by Finks, we moved in closer for the sale. This was the first video sale I had been to, where videos of the bulls are shown on tv screens as opposed to bringing the bulls through the ring. It's a lot less labour, less stress on the bulls and a much faster process, but not as fun! During the sale I caught up with the Barrett family and the Finks, and met a few more great people - the personalities are definitely a highlight of the US! The sale went really well and the Finks were happy with the result, so we made our way back to Manhattan. Once back at my apartment, I had a quick turnaround before I was heading to the Sheep and Goat Unit to learn a bit about showing sheep and goats. One of my friends was showing a goat at the LAR and as I don't know anything about it, it was really interesting to watch! After an hour at the Sheep and Goat Unit, it was back to the Purebred Unit to work with my heifer again. A couple of hours turned into an 8:30pm finish so I was certainly ready for bed!
Sunday was a busy but nice day, with lunch and dinner with a couple of friends, broken up with working my heifer again. You would hope that my heifer and I would be in good shape for the show in a week's time, considering all the time I've spent working with her - wait and see!
