May 15, 2014
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| carrots offered in Sydney Market |
The group was off to an early start this morning with a
5:30 am departure to the Sydney Markets, the central hub for all produce and floral
trade done in the area. A tour of the flower, banana, and produce “sheds”
revealed a bustling community of growers, venders, shippers, buyers, and
consumers. Here, the market offers fresh products to individual and wholesale
buyers from 5-9am five days a week, and several smaller vendors offering their
produce through the weekends.
As a main warehouse
of sorts for the market, the bananas are a popular enough commodity to have their
own section of the market. Here, green unripened bananas are transported in
from the north daily where they are then placed and stored in heat and gas
regulated ripening sheds. The green bananas are placed under 13-15°C conditions
and infused with their own ripening gas until they reach an optimal maturity to
be transported more prominently to grocery and convenient stores
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| Dairy cows at Leppington Pastoral Company |
Our next stop was the Leppinton Pastoral Company, a 2,000
head family owned and operated dairy in Bringelly, New South Wales. The dairy
is unique in comparison to other Australian dairies in that it more similarly
resembles that of dairies back home. The free-stall, “climate control” facility
features a Magnum 40 double 36 Westfalia- surge Harringbone parlor with the
bulk of the milking components and electronics being housed bellow in a
“subway.” Milking happens 24 hours a day with each cow getting milked three
times a day. Outside of the milking parlor, the cows have an option of paddock
turnout, and individual, sand-bedded stalls. Each barn is equipped with
automatic fans and misters that turn on when temperatures reach 20C. According
to our resident dairy experts, the Leppinton’s have excellent conception and
pregnancy rates within their program while their milk production rates are
nearly average in comparison to a majority of dairies back home.
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| Cows in the parlor being milked |
From there, we took a three hour southern trek through some
of Australia’s less productive eastern country side into the Australian Capital
Territory, Canberra. Canberra became the capitol of Australia when the country
failed to agree on a location for the capital in a debate between Sydney and
Melbourne.
Once in Canberra we found our
way to the United States Embassy where we were able to visit with the FAS
Agricultural Counselor, Hugh Maginnis, on the commodity regulations between
Australia and the US. Topics of discussion included comparisons of US and
Australian imports and exports, the Australian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the
World Trade Organization, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Lastly, we trekked up to Mount Ainslie, where we could look
out on the city of Canberra and see the lights of the Capital. A full moon was about
to rise, but the cold temperatures got to most of us and ended up leaving
early. We then went back to the hotel, which was a shock to all the students,
saying it was smaller than our SDSU dorm rooms and the bathrooms resembled a
“porter potty” or “camper bathroom.” We then went out for dinner in the center
of Dickson, where we all wandered to find a place to eat. Many of us went to a
local pub, where we got to cook own steaks. The night ended early for most of
us, who got a good night’s rest before the next day’s adventure.
Katelynn and Caitlin
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