May 18th

Day 6

We started our day at 8 am and left Dubbo with a two and a half hour bus ride to our first tour: Benham family farms "Kooiyong".  We met with Steve and Andrew Benham, the father and son that run the operation.  They are mostly a cropping operation with seasonal crops year round. The farm consists of 5,472 acres, with 892 acres they lease next door.  They have irrigation system and dams that cover 123 acres when full.  This adds to a grand total of 6,240 acres for cropping and grazing. Their irrigation crops consist of cotton, sorghum, canola, wheat, and barley.  Their winter crops are wheat, barley, and canola. The summer crops are grain sorghum and cotton.

koala in tree

Our first stop on the tour was out to one of their pastures to see a Koala that had set up a home in one of the eucalyptus trees right next to their sheep herd.  We walked through his machine shed and saw all the machinery needed to run his operation including his cotton picker, planter, a water truck, and a cotton baler.  We also saw an interesting selection of old McCormick and John Deere tractors that he had on his property. After touring his main property, we loaded into the bus and went on a driving tour of his crop paddocks.  We saw his extensive irrigation system including several dams and collection ditches.  We also learned about the many regulations that comes with water use in Australia.

Andrew shows his cotton crop

We stopped at one of his cotton fields and got a chance to see a full cotton plant and learned the process of harvesting the cotton plant and separating the cotton from the seed and their different purposes and uses.

We also took a trip to to his sorghum fields.  Right now, that part of the county has been in a drought the last couple of years. Steve said they would feed most of it to the cattle when the grass got bad. On our way back from our paddock tour we spotted another Koala in one of his pastures.  Of course this became the highlight of our trip as we all jumped out to take pictures and see how close we could get! Bill said that was very rare, he hadn't ever seen a Koala that close.

Koala in the field

Amy Diedrich gets close to the koala

We stopped at Gunnedah services and bowling club for lunch at 1. Apparently it is sort of like a VFW. This lawn bowling, sounds like bocce ball, is pretty popular.

As we were driving we saw a bunch of cattle in the ditches and crossing the road. At home you would think there was a gate open. Bill, our guide, explained there is a government program producers can participate in when their pastures are no longer grazable. They were allowed to graze freely during the day as long as they had supervision, but had to be penned up during the night.  The cattle must have been used to cars because they let us get pretty close before feeling the need to move.

After a quick lunch, we drove another hour and a half to the Tamworth Marsupial Park.  The park featured free ranging kangaroos, several aviaries, some emus, and a family of wallabies.  There were several species of birds including parrots, finches, cockatoos, and a friendly duck named "Willie."  There were also rabbits, guinea pigs, and a golden pheasant.  The park, which is run by volunteers within the community of Tamworth, is full of twisting, winding trails that took you all over the park including a lookout tower, several picnic areas, and a playground.  The park was free and featured a family friendly environment that allowed people to get up close and personal with Australian wildlife.

emu at the park

parrot on the ground

We ended the night at our hotel in Armidale where we will be for the next two nights.

Clairie and Brooke

May 15

May 15, 2014

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.

flowers at Sydney Market

flowers at Sydney Market

flowers at Sydney Market

Australia is home to the world’s largest genus of plant life, which was on display within the flower sheds of the market. Native foliage most notably of emerald, topaz, ruby, and pearl colors are delicately harvested, packaged and put on display down every aisle of the sheds.

 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

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. 

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

May 16th

Our first stop of the day was to CSIRO: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. It started out primarily as an agriculture research organization in Melbourne and has expanded its focuses tremendously for the past 87 years. At CSIRO they research anything from land, plants, crops, health, medical practices, climate, medicine, mining, energy conservation, sharks, and much more. They also work with NASA regarding space research. Their budget is provided 60% funded from the federal government and 40% by partnerships. CSIRO is known for inventions including but not limited to WiFi, polymer plastic bank notes, fabric softener, and aerosol fly spray. They have also published many successful books. A few of their workers gave us a chat about their background, a tour of the very interactive museum, and a video on climate. They were also kind enough to let us have a hands on visit with their native stick insects and native freshwater turtles. We had a very interactive visit and learning experience at this center.

The next stop on our tour of Canberra was the national Parliament House.  While here, we learned more about the history of Australia, as well as their politics and government.  As we learned, the Australian government is organized as a combination of the US and British systems.  They have two houses, one is the Senate, the other is the House of Representatives. These two houses are very similar to our's as the Senate is comprised of a fixed number of representatives from each state and the House of Representatives is allotted by population.  There are two "Heads of State," one being elected by the people (Prime Minister)and the other chosen by the Queen of England (Governor General.) The Governor General has veto power and is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.  The Prime Minister is the political and international leader chosen by the people.

Crest on the parliament house

 The Parliament House itself was only finished within the last fifty years.  The original  building was only meant to be temporary, but still stands today. As you can see in the picture, the building is much different architecturally than the US Capital. We learned many things about the Capital of Australia in our tour of the capital.

For our lunch we stopped at a little cafe near Young, Australia before we arrived at Willayoung Orchard, our third visit. Andrew Ricketts, talked to us about his operation, how he started out as a small fruit tree business and transitioned into a orchard. They produce many different kinds of cherries, figs, table grapes, plums, yellow and white nectarines, apricots, yellow and white peaches. The operation consisted of about 20 acres, while maintaining over 5,500 trees.


Matt, Amy and Sara

Andrew Ricketts @ Willayoung Orchard

Sara and Jackson listen to Andrew

Our last stop for the day was our farm stays. We got divided up between five families, each getting our very own Australian experience. Whether that was having a bonfire in a padlock, enjoying the company of Australia neighbors and family while stuffing our faces with delicious 'barbie' food, from cheeses & crackers, cheese & breed, fresh fruit, veggies, barbied mushrooms, lamb chops, grass fed burgers, sausage, bananas & carmel, Carmel brownies, and roasted marshmallows ( 3 groups experienced this). Or enjoying a delicious lamb cooked meal inside with the host family (2 groups).

Bonfire at farm stay

Grilling at the bonfire during the farm stay

May 13

Many of us left bright and early for our flights starting in Sioux Falls going to Atlanta (the busiest airport in the US) then onto Los Angeles. The students who left from Sioux Falls had a 10 hour layover in LAX, which really started to take a toll on people. The rest of the students slowly met us at LAX as they traveled from Minneapolis and Denver. We were all very anxious and ready to board the plane by the time 10 pm rolled around.

We landed in Sydney around 6:30 am and started the day with a gorgeous walk along the cliffs to the popular Bondi beach in Sydney.

Staircase along cliff walk

 There were many different beaches along the way and it was interesting to see all the people running or surfing the waves along with the scenery. We learned that many businesses actually have their workers doing fitness groups during business hours to help with a healthier lifestyle. All of us students were very excited to stretch our legs after our 15 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean. We found it very cool that we're basically in the future due to the fact that Australia's time zone is 17 hours ahead of Brookings. The cliff walk took us about 2 hours to complete.

Students sitting on wall at cliff walk lookout

 I think we were all pretty relieved when we learned that the last beach in sight. We walked around the Bondi beach and up by the shops and decided to stop for some brunch at a couple different cafes. One was called Gabby's Cafe and served some pretty good food. We then proceeded onto our bus where we got a small tour of Sydney. We were taken to some great spots to get photos, some of which that had an interesting story. We were taken to place with an amazing view of Sydney, the lighthouse, double bay, downtown, a view of the harbors, a view of the opera house and lots of beautiful residential homes.

A few of these homes and sights had been occupied by famous people like Elton John, Nicole Kidman, and Russell Crowe. Another place we visited we found particularly interesting. "The Gap" which is near the entrance to Sydney Harbor. This spot is sometimes called "suicide cliff" due to the many deaths that have happened from people jumping. There were a few of us lucky enough to see a whale while we were sightseeing at "The Gap".

Boomerang-shaped house on Sydney city tour

We then arrived at our hotel around 1:30 pm but we're advised to go out and explore the city instead of sleeping so we could get a good night rest. All of us students decided on going to the pub for a drink first as we were all ready to relax and get to know one another better. We then continued onto a few shops around the busy George street of downtown Sydney. Although we soon figured out that none of us could afford about anything within most of the shops. We did however find a Woolworths, which is similar to a grocery store in the US. Here we found some fresh fruits and vegetables along with pasties and muffins for the next couple mornings breakfasts. We finished off the night by going to the local restaurant Encasa. We all look forward to getting some well needed sleep tonight!

Students in front of Opera House and Sydney Bridge

Kristen and Emily

May 14

            The start of day two started around 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning.  We took a bus to the headquarters of Meat & Livestock Australia.  We were greeted by Robert Baker, who gave a majority of the presentation with the help of his other colleagues that work in other departments of the organization.  They indicated that the agency they would be similar to in the United States would be Beef Check-Off.  This is a producer owned organization that is owned by 47,500 producers throughout the country of Australia.  They do not regulate the industry instead they promote it through different programs with the producer as well as the consumer both domestically and overseas.  Australia produces more beef than their country can consume, therefore in order to have solid market prices Australia must rely on their export markets.  They really promote their beef and lamb in peak periods of the seasons.  Beef’s peak season is in the summer and fall, and Lamb’s peak season is considered in the spring and the fall.  Due to these differences they change their marketing schemes to meet the consumer demands.  Another marketing technique they have used to promote red meat is by making cell phone apps, there is a SteakMate, Lamb Roast, and Cutschart apps, each designed to help educated and help consumers find new and easy ways to prepare both lamb and beef.  Because these techniques cost money they must find a way to make profits, therefore there is a levy that is charged every time a head of cattle is sold, the seller is charged $5, and for sheep this rate is 1.5% up to $2.  This is charged every time the animal is sold.    70% of Australian beef is exported to other countries.  Their biggest export market is Japan where they export 637 million lbs of beef, and also 469 million lbs to the US.  Most of the beef that is exported to the US is manufactured to hamburgers or ground beef.  Another interesting fact is that Australian producers feed their animals to a lighter carcass weight at around 650 lbs. compared to the US 800 lbs.  There are a lot of other programs that they work on to promote the consumption and production of red meat. 

      After meeting with Meat and Livestock Australia we took a luncheon cruise on the magnificent Sydney Harbor.  The views of the cruise were some of the best we have seen. They served us lunch that included plenty of seafood along with other dishes that are not common in the Midwest.

Luncheon cruise in Sydney Harbor

Sydney Opera House

     Once finishing the cruise we ventured towards the famous Sydney Opera House for a tour and peak inside the building.  Most of us were expecting a very fancy and opulent opera house.  Contrary to this the building was much more plain, with exposed concrete on the inside and plain walls.  The building consisted of very clean lines of architecture with lots of glass.  The man who designed the building worked very hard to get the unique building finished but it wasn’t finished until 10 years after he finished.  He went home and never returned to see the final product that he designed.  We were able to see both of the large rooms, one for classical music that held 2,500 people, and the other for ballet and opera that held around 1,500 people.  Tickets ranged from $30-300 per person.  The tour guide told us that it was a rare opportunity to see both of the rooms on the tour!


Sydney Opera House interior

            We finished the tour and did some shopping.  We walked back to the hotel and went to find some food.  Thanks to a very friendly Irish lady we were directed to a pub “bar” and grill with reasonable prices.  We were able to enjoy a hearty meal and prepare for our early morning tomorrow to head off to the capital of Canberra.














Kali and Jackson

         

Pre-trip

Students are excited to start on their international agriculture journey to Australia!!! We will be leaving on Sunday, May 11th and returning on Sunday, May 25th. More information will be posted as we get closer to our departure date.  Be sure to follow us on our Facebook page (SDSU Australia Ag Course).