Australia - Day 5

May 27, 2012

This morning was extremely foggy. Albury proved to be a nice town to stay in and after breakfast the group took a lengthy bus ride to our first destination for the day - Trigger Vale. We heard from Andrew and Mandi Bouffler about their White Suffolk and Bond Merino Stud. They run about 1200 Merino ewes, 500 White Suffolk ewes, and because they are a stud, approximately 700-800 yearling rams.  Additionally, they grow crops: wheat, barley, canola, faba beans, and oats. Andrew is very educated and has traveled the world bringing back ideas to put into practice within his own operation. Essentially, he is working to build a super ewe who has the ability with proper nutrition and environment to reproduce and raise a lamb in addition to producing top quality wool. I really enjoyed this visit and learned a lot, especially because we don't have any operations close to the magnitude in the United States. Artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and even genomics are used by this operation. The second stop for the day was an emu farm by "The Rock" on Marrocka and it was nice because the sun came out. Ian and Marilyn Marston run about 200 birds. Surprisingly, each bird is quite valuable because of a special oil in the emu's back in addition to leather, meat, and some feathers. This stop was very "outside the box" so to speak and an unforgettable experience. They were also kind enough to serve us lunch. It was very delicious! We had salad, potatoes, steak, sausages (beef hotdogs) and pavlova for dessert. They were very hospitable and it was great to have a home cooked meal. For the last stop we got to see Sprys Shorthorn stud. This stop was phenomenal and the highest quality stock that we have seen so far. In fact, a bull that won the Sydney Royal not too long ago that the stud sold was here for a few days. The focus of the Shorthorn breed is much different here compared to the United States because it has more of a commercial focus. This is another favorite stop and they were kind enough to feed us dinner.