My 2011 Study Tour
MY 2011 STUDY TOUR:
I am a young stud Angus breeder from "Hollywood Angus Stud", Peak Hill, NSW. I was awarded the Matthew George Young Stockman Award for 2010 at the Royal Melbourne Show. In April, I will be heading to Mexico and Canada for a four month study tour to get an overview of the beef cattle industries in these countries. I will be visiting a range of enterprises, including major shows, stud and commercial operations, and feedlots. I wish to thank the Ballarat Foundation for the opportunity to live my dream, and hope to share my experiences via this blog.
"LIVE YOUR DREAM"
"LIVE YOUR DREAM": THE MATTHEW GEORGE YOUNG STOCKMAN AWARD
The Matthew George Young Stockman Award was established as a sub-fund of the Ballarat Foundation in honour of Matthew George of Stockyard Hill, who was tragically taken in a car accident in 2007 at 21 years of age. Matthew had an absolute love of animals together with a thirst for knowledge and a passion for breeding. This annual award provides a young breeder aged 18 to 25 years with the opportunity to live Matthew's dream, and travel overseas to become an ambassador for the beef industry and study other beef cattle breeding programs and developments.
APPLY NOW FOR THE MATTHEW GEORGE AWARD 2011: Applications are now open for this year's Matthew George Young Stockman Award. This is an amazing award for anyone who wants to learn more about the beef industry. If you're aged 18-25, make sure you apply - the opportunities it opens up are just incredible! For application details, go to
www.ballaratfoundation.org.au click on 'sub funds' & then 'matthew george award'. Applications close 30 June.
This last week at Expo there were a number of cattle breeds being judged that I have never seen before. These included Sardo Negro (above left) and Guzerat (above right), both Cebu (Bos Indicus breed) cattle. Interesting cattle – loved the skin colour on the Sardo Negro (Black speckles) & the horns on the Guzerat - & that was the best part of both. They suit the tropical climate esp. on the coast. Also on display were Simmental, Limousin, Suizo Europeo (Braunveih), Brangus, Beef Master (on left) & Brahman. 
Also had the opportunity to go and inspect the carcases of the carcase competition bulls and heifers at the slaughter house in Tepa - great thing to see. The type of carcases they want are very different to ours - some dressed well over 70%; no IMF to be seen and very little fat, but a huge quanity of meat. The grand champion carcase went to a black Limousin bull. After the inspection they auctioned the carcases - didn’t stay for all the sale but the first heifers were bringing around the $38 peso mark per kilo ($3.16 approx Aust) for carcase around 400-450kg dressed. 
