Day 6: Wagga Wagga

After breakfast at the motel we were off to the Wagga Wagga Sale Yards. Which is the equivalent to the local sale barns in America. However, sales in Australia work completely different. To sale at the auction you have to sell through a agent who will receive commission. These sale yards sell cattle every Monday and average about 2800 head, and sheep every Thursday selling over 10000.

Once this tour concluded we went across the road to the Cargill - Teys abattoir. This was an interesting tour because we were able to compare it to the JBS tour we received earlier in the week. In this plant we had to put on more protection gear. It included rubber boots, white pants with a long sleeve white shirt, a hair net, safety glasses, ear plugs, a face mask, and a hard hat. This company really takes their safety seriously. Once in we split into two groups. The first group got to tour the plant first and the second got a background on their feedlot. In the plant we got the see the boning room which was a lot more Americanized compared to JBS. In addition to this, we got to see their value added room and their what they to with their variety meats. However, we did not get to see the killing floor or go anywhere near it like we did at JBS. And another difference was the the tour lasted only 20 minutes when the JBS tour lasted a couple hours.

When then moved on to the town of Temora where we ate lunch and shopped before moving on to the Teys feedlot.