Australia Is On The Horizon

In just a few weeks I'll have graduated from Kansas State University and be south bound for Australia. 

While in my class for the trip to Australia I've learned many interesting facts about the Land Down Under. Here is just a little of what was presented during my weekly class: 

• The Australian National Anthem is "Advance Australia Fair"
• The Queen of England is considered the Queen of Australia 
• Citizens who are 18 or older are required by law to vote in Australia
• If you do not vote you are accessed a $20 fine
• "Hotels" - bars in Australia are called hotels because of strict liquor licensing laws from the 19th century
• Influential men and women are featured on each piece of Australian currency
• A kangaroo and emu are featured on the Coat of Arms, representing that Australia is always moving forward because neither animal can move backwards easily
• Wheat is the major crop grown in Australia
• Approximately 25,000 farms grow wheat
• Sugar cane is the 2nd largest exported crop
• 95% of sugar cane is grown in Queensland
• Angus cattle came to Australia in 1824
• 1 in 4 cattle are Angus in Australia
• Hereford and Shorthorn cattle were imported to Australia from England in 1825
• Four different branded programs for Australian Hereford beef
• Simmental cattle weren't introduced until 1972
• 4% of the world's beef supply comes from Australia
• There are over 77 million sheep in Australia
• New South Wales is home to 34% of the total sheep flock 
• The United States is the largest market for lamb exports
• Emus are native to Australia, but there are more in the United States
• Emus only drink 1-2 times daily
• Emus can run 30 miles per hour
• Western Australia was the first state to start emu farming in 1970
• Australian livestock auctions started in the 1850s
• The Great Barrier Reef is over 500 million years old 
• It is the largest coral reef in the world
• The Great Barrier Reef is visible from space

Well I can't wait to get to know my classmates even better on our journey across the Pacific Ocean, while learning more about this interesting land. I also look forward to updating everyone on Australian agriculture, culture and history. Make sure you follow along as I trek across the world's largest island.

Until next time, happy trails!

Brewery Tour Training: Cue the Rocky Montage Music

Drinking a bit of grog is fairly common in Australia. During my first few days in Australia I'll actually get to visit a large brewery, so I'm getting versed in all manners of brew before the trip.  

                         

Look at that line up.

In order to help train me in brewery tour "etiquette," I attended a tour of Tallgrass Brewing Company in Manhattan, Kan., this past Saturday with my cousin, Felicia, and our friend, Patrick. The tour is setup where you pay $5 at the door for a tasting glass shaped like a can and six drink tickets. Then you come and go as you please between the tour and tasting room.

We arrived a little late, so Felicia and Patrick went ahead and sampled the grog in the tasting room, while I went back and forth from the tour.

The famous brewing tanks.

Something cool about the tanks used at the brewery is that each is named after an American Gladiator. Names like Gemini, Nitro and Thunder, show up with prominent stickers on each stainless steel tank.

Next we toured the canning area where pallets of empty cans were stacked all the way to the ceiling. Tallgrass only has one canning line, so if anything goes wrong with the equipment they are in for a big headache. Oh, and did I mention everything that is individually marketed is in cans, making that one line even more vital.

The last stop was the cooler where tons of cans and kegs were waiting for shipment. There were also some firkins, which are used for specialty beers. This upcoming month they will debut a beer that contains a mix of coconut and chocolate at a special tasting located in Auntie Mae's Parlor.

The last of the Kold beers.

Once the tour ended I asked our guide a few questions. He told me interesting facts like the majority of the barley used in their product comes from specialty growers in the upper-Midwest, particularly Wisconsin. They also get some of their wheat from a farm in Wallace County, Kan.

I also asked about one of my favorite beers: Kold. It had been taken off the shelves over a year ago and I was curious why. Apparently, between it not selling well and taking longer to produce because it was a lager, the decision was made to pull the label. I guess I'll just have to hold on to that last can in my fridge a little longer and maybe it will go up astronomically in value.

Tasting some of the grog.

I tasted several beers while on the tour including: Ale, Oasis and 8-Bit. Each one of these beers have been on the market for a little while, so I was fairly familiar with them.

A new beer that was on tap, Farm House Wild Plum, offered a change of pace with a slightly-bitter, yet sweet taste. It was my favorite beer at the tasting. I had tried the other flavors before so that new beer taste could have just gotten the best of my senses.

After I finished up the tour the three of us went to the gaming area of the brewery and played a little Duck Hunt on Nintendo. It conjured up some good memories of playing with my older brother back when Nintendo was on top and no other consoles came close to its platform.

"What does high score mean? New high score, is that bad?"

Upon playing a few rounds of Duck Hunt, I soon got into a groove and was primed to shatter the record at Tallgrass. After 15 rounds of play the dog finally had the last laugh, but I could now say I had reigned supreme with a score of 174,600. My mark shattered the previous score of approximately 41,000 and left me feeling like I could best anyone that day.

However, a few hours later I would join Patrick and a few other friends for a round of golf at Colbert Hills. I ended up finishing last, and it wasn't even close. Maybe I should just stick with Duck Hunt.

I'm sure while I'm Down Under I'll have a few samples of the local brews, but it may be hard to measure up to one of my favorite breweries: Tallgrass Brewing Company.

Well until next time, happy trails!

Down Under Cinema

Movies about the Australian Outback have drawn in audiences for the last few decades. Whether it's a modern day trilogy like Crocodile Dundee or a blast from the past like Quigley Down Under, moviegoers can't seem to get enough of this legendary land.

                                                                                 

For me it all started with The Rescuers Down Under, a plucky cartoon about two mice who are determined to save a young boy and rare golden eagle. What really sells this film for me is the voice talent. The maniacal McLeach, a poacher bent on trapping and killing every critter in sight, is voiced by brilliant George C. Scott who is best known for playing the role of Patton. Other cinema greats who were involved in this picture include John Candy, Eva Gabor, Bob Newhart and Peter Firth. The movie also has the distinction of being the first Disney sequel.

Disney hit more gold with the creation of the Pixar film, Finding Nemo. While it doesn't take place on land very often, it shows off the expansive ocean that lies to the east. In the movie Nemo's father, Marlin, is accompanied by the forgetful Dory on a journey that takes them from the Great Barrier Reef all the way to Sydney in hopes of finding Nemo.

The Man From Snowy River and its sequel, Return to Snow River, are two classics that take a look at Australia's gold rush days. Tom Burlinson plays mountain man Jim Craig who is legendary for his ride down the face of cliff in pursuit of a mob of horses. The movies are a good mix of history and fiction as it is based off the poem by Banjo Patterson.

Another favorite of mine is the Tom Selleck film Quigley Down Under. American sharpshooter Matthew Quigley has been brought to the Outback to hunt dingoes, but when he finds out he will be shooting at something much different he has a change of heart and rebels against his cruel employer. 

For all the great Australian movies there are a few that just don't sit well with me. Australia is one of those films. Just recently released in 2008, this tale of love, cattle, racial tension and war seems like a real winner. However, for me it is too reminiscent to other movies like Giant (which is one of my favorite flicks) and Pearl Harbor (which is one of my least favorite). Because of its similarities to the latter and not the former I've never been to fond of the Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman picture.

Mad Max you're on my watch list.

Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles is another film that missed the mark. The first two Crocodile Dundee movies are funny throughout, but the third film seems to lack the pizzazz of its predecessors. 

Well now I'm on a mission to watch all these films and maybe a few others before I head to Australia. Mad Max and A Cry in the Dark sound like a good change of pace from the comedies, westerns and cartoons I mentioned.

Until next time, happy trails!

Brumbies & Bureaucracy: Wild Horses in Australia & the U.S.

When many people think of the wild horses of Australia they gather that iconic vision of Jim Craig chasing his mob of brumbies down the side of a mountain in the movie The Man from Snowy River. While this fictional tale based off a Banjo Patterson poem might make you feel warm and fuzzy, it is not an accurate description of the current and ongoing feral horse problem in Australia.

The brumbies of Australia are a major nuisance to agriculture producers, landowners and native wildlife, causing millions of dollars in economic losses each year.

Similar to the North American mustangs, the brumbies of Australia were introduced when the continent was colonized in the late 1700s and the herds were established by the mid-19th century.

Brumby distribution in Australia (highlighted in green)

More than 400,000 brumbies and 5 million feral donkeys are found in areas that are better suited for grazing livestock. The only threat to the wild equine species in Australia is wildfire or drought, making it relatively easy for populations to get out of hand. If no management is done their populations can increase 20 percent in a year.

                          

This is why government intervention is necessary of these invasive species. Horses are "mustered" or gathered to holding pens so they can either be sold as riding stock or taken to an abattoir for processing. Other horses and burrows are managed with fertility treatments to prevent females from breeding and in some cases they are euthanized via a rifle shot from a helicopter or on foot.

The sunsets on mustangs south of Cassoday, Kan.

In the U.S. we have a similar program where the Bureau of Land Management gathers herds of wild mustangs and burrows in the western states. The horses are then brought to the Great Plains where they are either taken to correctional facilities to be broken for adoption or they are released on long-term holding pastures. Approximately 100 miles to the south of Manhattan, Kan., in the Flint Hills there are thousands of these wild horses being held on what I like to call "retirement pastures" as the majority of these mustangs will never leave the tall-grass prairies. 

While I agree the adoption programs both here and in Australia are great initiatives, they do not address the overwhelming problem that these animals are a nuisance species who are dominating grazing areas and water holes. I think Australia is getting it right with their management approach. The mindset there appears to be no different than how we treat feral hogs in Kansas. Each year wild pigs are shot from helicopters or trapped because of a U.S. Department of Agriculture and Kansas Animal Health Department funded program. Culling old or malnourished horses and donkeys in this manner may seem inhumane, but it is better than the alternative of letting them suffer death from starvation.

Wild horses during winter in Butler Co., Kan.

Changing people's mindsets that horses are livestock and not pets is the main way that the U.S. can correct it's wild mustang, and even worse abandoned horse problem. At least Australians have the option to take their excess horses to an abattoir for a more humane death. In the U.S. we have to send our horses across the border to Canada or Mexico for slaughter, which often does not meet the same animal handling regulations.

Mustangs grazing on bluestem grass in Greenwood, Co., Kan.

Activist groups like Save The Brumbies, Australian Brumby Alliance, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and The Humane Society of the United States who support saving feral horses and donkeys only hurt native species who were intended to graze these rugged areas. They are also negatively affecting agriculture producers who utilize and maintain land that is either publicly or privately owned.

Wild horses and donkeys have inhabited the Earth for thousands of years, but they are not native to Australia or North America, and they are not pets. There's no need to treat them any differently than any other feral species.
                        

Until next time, happy trails!

Station to Stomach: Live Export in Australia

Live animal export is a major source of economic income for the agriculture industry in Australia. However, live export is also a hot topic issue in Australia too.

Lyn White, Animals Australia, speaking at the Ban Live Animals Export Rally.

In the past year livestock exporting to Indonesia was briefly stopped because the processing of beef in the country was seen as inhumane. Groups like Animals Australia and RSPCA Australia have formed alliances to ban live export. 

Just this week protesters chained themselves to a gate in an effort to prevent the export of live animals. There were even protesters who boarded the ship so they could take footage of the "substandard" holding areas.

Meat & Livestock Australia has created YouTube channel to promote the livestock export industry and the following video has some interesting facts about the importance of this agriculture industry segment.

There can be as many as 23,000 head of cattle on the large export ships and more than 100,000 sheep. Over 99 percent of sheep arrive healthy to their destination, while 99.9 percent of cattle make it to their new homes safely. The animals even gain a decent amount of weight while on their journey across the ocean by consuming pelleted ration. 

The ships are ventilated by large fans and fresh water is produced by a massive desalination unit. Veterinarians and accredited stockmen ride with the animals to help monitor their health and ensure they are treated humanely upon arrival.


Cattle and sheep are transported to countries like Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Over $1 billion in is made off the nearly 1 million cattle and 4.5 million sheep that are exported each year.

Here are some more facts about live export from Meat & Livestock Australia.

Time will tell if live export will be ended altogether in Australia or if agreements can be made between the organizations who oppose this important industry.

Until next time, happy trails!