An Australian Angus Exchange: Perspectives from Rebecca George and Dan Moser

Learn about beef industry similarities and differences with Rebecca George, an exchange student and beef producer from Australia. Shauna Hermel sat down with Rebecca and Kansas State University's Dan Moser about a great opportunity for college-aged beef producers. 

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This is Shauna Hermel, editor with the Angus Beef Bulletin. And we are visiting this morning with Rebecca George, who is from over the pond, and Dan Moser, from K State and a fellow Angus enthusiast from way back. Right, Dan?

Dan Moser:

That's right.

Shauna Hermel:

Let's go ahead and just get a little bit of personal background for our audience if we could. Dan, if you want to start out, if you could give us a little bit of history.

Dan Moser:

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm now the Associate Dean for Academic Programs at Kansas State University in the College of Agriculture, but I'm the sort of site coordinator for a program that goes back many years, a partnership with the Angus Society of Australia. Back in the 1980s, my father-in-law, Dr. Dave Hawkins, started a program with Michigan State, where the Angus Society selected a student to come to Michigan State for a semester, and then when Dr. Hawkins retired, then that program moved to Kansas State. And so I think in 2013 we had our first Angus Society scholar visit Kansas State for the semester and that's been going on ever since, of course with a break for a couple of years, but very excited to have Rebecca here in 2023.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful. And Rebecca, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of the program that you came from back home and how you arrived here in the United States?

Rebecca George:

Yes, of course. So back home in Australia, I'm from the central west of New South Wales, so about seven to eight hours west of Sydney, that's driving. And I grew up on my family's property where we have a mixed enterprise there with some broad acre cropping, we have meat sheep and we also have a commercial herd of purebred Angus. So grew up in the central west there, then I did my high school at boarding school a bit closer to Sydney, in a city called Bathurst. And from there, I then went to the University of New England, which is in Armidale. Armidale is also the home of Angus Australia, so that ties in a little bit there. I got my degree there and growing up through the Angus Youth Program, the K State scholarship was always on my radar. It's one of the big ones that you always aspire to for when you're a little bit older. And I applied in 2019, I was successful and the plan was to be here in 2020. So after a few-

Shauna Hermel:

We had a change, didn't we?

Rebecca George:

Definitely, we had a few COVID delays, but I was able to fulfill the scholarship in its original format this semester, which I was really grateful to be able to do.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful. How did you become aware of the scholarship in Australia?

Rebecca George:

Yeah, definitely. So growing up, I have been a youth member of Angus Australia since I was old enough to register really. I started showing cattle at a really young age. I grew up next to an Angus stud, so I started going to the Angus Youth Roundup, which is their heifer show and then a few other heifer shows that are organized on the eastern seaboard of Australia. And going through that program, I became more and more involved with Angus Youth and I sort of went on to join a few different committees, apply for some of the different scholarships and workshops that they offer for their university-aged members.

So coming through the ranks of that program and the different levels of scholarships and opportunities that they offer, you learn about the bigger ones and you see your older peers go through them. So I was aware of the K State scholarship from quite a young age, and it was definitely one that I was like, "Oh, one day I'll apply for that." And never, of course, expecting to actually be successful considering how many of my peers are applying for it year after year, so it was always on the radar.

Shauna Hermel:

Give us a little bit of perspective for Angus Australia and some of the members and your junior membership. How does that compare to maybe what we would find here in the United States?

Rebecca George:

Yeah, so in Australia, the Angus Breed Society, it's definitely the biggest, but their youth program is probably the most developed and I imagine that that would've been heavily modeled off what you guys are doing here. They have their own employees and coordinator for the youth program and then they also have a committee of youth members that sort of sit like a board and discuss the current scholarships, if there's any additional money coming in through the foundation, what that's earmarked for. We discuss new opportunities that we want to provide to the youth and if there's anything that we're missing and whether we want to try and focus on a more commercial type of scholarship or we want to try and find something that's a bit more networking maybe for our younger members that are sort of early high school, that age there.

So it's definitely its own being under the Angus Australia umbrella and we're able to really cater to the younger people in our breed and try and offer as much as we can possible. I was fortunate enough to sit on the Angus Youth Consolidative Committee for the previous term just gone and it's really exciting to be able to sit with, we have a president and then a member from Angus Australia, an employee that sits on with us and they take our recommendations to the board and we are able to, being part of the youth program, we're able to steer the ship, I guess, a little bit for our peers and the next generation coming through.

Shauna Hermel:

Well, it must be wonderful to be able to come get an international outlook and to be able to see how it compares to your operations back home. What kind of differences are you finding between the US and Australia?

Rebecca George:

I would say the biggest one that I noticed as soon as I got off the plane was the temperature. Coming from middle of January, I arrived the probably hottest part of our summer and I landed in Denver straight into winter. So I walked out of the airport and realized my T-shirt wasn't going to cut it. So the winter that I've experienced here is the coldest temperatures I've ever been in.

Shauna Hermel:

Stick around, we can get some of the hottest.

Rebecca George:

Yeah, that's it. I've been enjoying the weather recently, it's been much more like home. That was probably the biggest difference straight off the bat, all those little things, driving on the wrong side of the road for me. And there's definitely a lot of similarities, especially in the beef industry, I think that Australia and the American beef industry have a lot of parallels for sure. And there is definitely differences as well, the biggest one that I've noticed that I perhaps didn't realize until I came here was the Australian market is much more export-focused. We export a lot of our commodities, not just beef, whereas your domestic market is definitely your main one and you have a lot more mouths to feed. The population difference between the two countries plays a major role in that.

And another difference that would probably fall into the biggest category for me is we have a national RFID traceability system, and that's something that's been in place for as long as I can remember. So it's sort of very much comes naturally to me, I couldn't imagine running a beef operation without it. So learning that there's not a nationally mandated one here and how you do on farm traceability and within the supply chain has been interesting.

Shauna Hermel:

You bet. We have had some efforts and with K State, with a cattle trace program and hoping to get some voluntary identification. Is that something that you think would benefit our US producers?

Rebecca George:

I think it could, yeah, definitely. Our traceability system, it's not that hard to execute once it is in place, as long as everyone is doing their part, I think can be the hardest part for making sure that that's running properly, and each producer is responsible for their own section in the database. So each producer will have a PIC, which is a property identification code, you log into the database and you're responsible for marking the animals that you bring onto your place and any deaths and stuff like that, you need to reflect that in the database. And if you purchase cattle, it is your responsibility to transfer those devices onto your PIC, and then when you sell them, you obviously chase up if there's any issues if someone hasn't transferred those cattle off. So it's a good system, but everyone's got to do their part to make it work.

Shauna Hermel:

You bet. Does that give you access to some analytics that you can use for your herd management in Australia that we might not have access to here?

Rebecca George:

On farm, I guess it wouldn't be too different. We use our RFID tags to do all of our data collection, our animals are identifiable by that. We have management tags that we put in them as well, and those numbers usually correspond with the NLS device as well. So I guess it would be the same as just using management tags to do that, but it's definitely more streamlined through the supply chain. In our sale yards, you can't send an animal into the sale yards without a tag, so we will scan them onto the truck before they leave our place, if someone's missing one, then we go and get the replacement tag, put that in. There's some paperwork to say, this is the old tag, this is the new one, same animal, and fill in all those blanks.

If an animal does arrive to the sale yards without a tag, it can't be sold. You either have to come and put the new tag in there or it gets sent back. So it makes it easier for those guys, they can unload a truck and scan it off and it's all there. They know who that animal is, who it belongs to, where it's come from.

Shauna Hermel:

Now kind of going back to the program and what you do through your scholarship, now that includes a semester or two here at Kansas State University?

Rebecca George:

Yeah, just the one semester. So I've been in Manhattan since January for the spring semester, so I've been able to sit in on some classes. Dan was really great in helping me pick classes that reflected my personal interests and were specific to the beef industry, as well as my undergraduate degree from Australia. So I was able to really put together quite a custom schedule of things that I'm passionate about and find really interesting and sit in on those classes and talk with my classmates and compare different things and weigh in on different topics. It's been really interesting and everyone has been really curious, and I find that the students and teachers have been asking me just the same amount of questions that I want to know from them. So it's been really, really interesting to be able to select units that are that specific in their topic. They're much more specific than the units that are offered through uni at home, so I really enjoyed being able to get into the nitty-gritty of some topics.

Shauna Hermel:

So which classes have you taken?

Rebecca George:

So I've taken a little bit of a variety. I did cow calf health systems, so focusing on a bit of reproduction there. I did three different units about nutrition, covering grazing and feedlot rations. I did two subjects that are a bit related to issues within ag, so contemporary issues in animal science and then climate change and agriculture. I was able to do the class that runs the bull sale at K State, which I found really, really fun and interesting.

Shauna Hermel:

That's a popular class.

Rebecca George:

It is, yeah, it's great. And I did one that's beef systems management, so very focused on running a beef production system, and we did a lot on cashflow budgets, making that bottom line balance, as well as global food leadership systems, which tied in quite nicely with my major in international agribusiness.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful. So tell me a little bit on the beef cattle systems, what are some of the differences between the Australian beef system and what you would go back home and implement with your herd, versus here and what might be the same? If a producer were to go to your herd and visit, what would surprise them and what would they think, oh gosh, that's just what we do at home?

Rebecca George:

I think the biggest surprise would be sheep. We have sheep at home, a lot more sheep, and we co graze and we run them together. So I've noticed that here, particularly in Kansas and the area around Manhattan, the grazing systems that have beef, that's usually their only animal that they're grazing. Where at home, you'll find a lot more enterprises grazing both.

Shauna Hermel:

Okay. And that would be a specific strategy where you would bring the sheep in after the cattle graze or can you explain a little bit?

Rebecca George:

Yeah, so you can co graze them together. Obviously cattle and sheep have different types of grazing. Sheep can clean up quite closer to the ground, can pick things up off the ground a lot easier, they can also graze a paddock out very well, so you have to be a bit careful with that. You can also fit them into different rotational grazing types of things, depending on what grazing paddocks you have available and what strategy you're working on there, as well as calving or lambing seasons. For us, the big draw in having both is diversifying income streams. Lamb is a big market at home, both export and domestic. I've noticed that in restaurants and in supermarkets, we tend to have a lot more lamb on the shelves than here. So by having both, we're able to diversify income and cover a bit more bases there. So it does help when you're trying to balance that bottom line as well.

Shauna Hermel:

Now as far as the sires used, would that be pretty familiar to our breeders here?

Rebecca George:

I think so. I think so, yeah. If an American breeder were to flip through some of our catalogs, I think they would find a lot of names they recognize. Australian seed stock produces import quite a lot of genetics from America and Canada. There's a lot of genetic companies that will come over here for tours, they will also bring some of their clients along, go visit, see up and coming bulls in the flesh and sort of biogenetics and figure out what different bulls and genetics are going to fit into our market systems at home. So I think American breeders would be very familiar with the names in our catalogs.

Shauna Hermel:

How about some of the priorities for genetics? What do you prioritize for fitting into the Australian system?

Rebecca George:

Yeah, definitely. I think it depends on the producer. I know for my parents and in our personal experience, we used to, when I was younger, we used to cater more towards the domestic market, whereas now we sell our steers into a feedlot that is based in Queensland. So when we're looking at bulls and we're looking at our replacement females, we're very much thinking about that market. We're looking at 400 day weight, we're looking at marbling. We're thinking beyond our own farm gate into what the Stockyard Beef Company are looking in for our animals, because we have established that relationship with them. So it really depends on what your target market is, and I've found recently, probably within the last five to 10 years, Australian beef producers have really honed in on, okay, what's my target market and let's focus on those sort of traits that we need to meet these expectations.

Shauna Hermel:

So you're already starting with that end target in mind when you breed the cow.Rebecca George:

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Trying to start that mindset and the target right at the very beginning so that everyone along the supply chain can hit their markers, hit their goals, make more money.

Shauna Hermel:

Okay. How structured is it between the cow calf producer and the feedlot and the packing industry compared to what it is here and what have you learned about our systems here in the US?

Rebecca George:

It varies a lot at home. I know my parents have a very well established relationship with the feedlot that our cattle go to and the company that owns the feedlot also owns the slaughterhouse and packing facility, so that is quite an integrated relationship. We get sent kill data of our animals, as well as induction data so we can know if last year's steers performed a bit better than this years, we can see those differences there. I imagine that there would be producers here in the US doing very similar things, trying to integrate the supply chain and make sure that everyone is winning. Whereas I think traditionally, it would've been the same here as at home, they were very much separate entities. We would take our cattle to the sale yards and then someone else would buy them and do what they needed to do with them and then sell them. Whereas it's becoming more of a flow and it's very similar here to at home, I find that we're following similar tracks.

Shauna Hermel:

Excellent. Now all of your time here hasn't been in the classroom and you're getting ready to go on some explorations with some herds. Tell us what's to come yet.

Rebecca George:

Yeah. So we've been out to Green Garden Angus, and were able to attend their bull sale, which was definitely a highlight for me to see a sale. And the auctioneering is a lot quicker here than at home, so it took me a few lots to get up to speed with that. The K State bull sale was definitely a highlight as well, it drew in quite a crowd, coinciding with Cattleman's Day. So it was a very exciting day, not just for the class, but for everyone involved in animal science, definitely. I've loved to come and visit the American Angus office here, I've had such a great day. It's been really exciting. And as the semester is wrapped up, I am heading on a little bit of a tour, mainly around the East Coast of the States. So I'm visiting some friends and family along the way and seeing a bit more of this lovely country.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful, wonderful. Now Dan, this will be continuation, is this with Australia, Angus Australia. And so it's set up for one student every year or how's that work?

Dan Moser:

Yeah, the goal, Shauna, is to every year to have a student and they'll be selecting the next K State scholar soon, and we'll start working on the paperwork so that maybe it won't be quite as much of a rush as Rebecca was to get her visa and all that sort of thing. It was definitely something we did in a rush. But yeah, it's an annual program that we'll have another student come probably in January of next year. And something that I really appreciate, it's been a joy to have Rebecca here and to me, there's a real benefit to our K state students, our resident students, to have the chance to interact with someone from another country that has the perspectives that she has of a different production system and of really our global food system. And so it's an honor to have her here and our students certainly benefit from the interaction and to build those connections.

You look at the list of students that were in the early part of the Michigan State program, many of them are very influential in all aspects of food production in Australia. And I know that the K State students that we have recently and in the future will have the same kind of impact. And so it's great to build those connections and I think both countries and both parties will benefit in the future.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful. If we have some young listeners who are saying, "Well, that's great that she gets to come to the US, how can I get to Australia and learn about Australia," do we have some programs that go the other way, to where our young producers can learn about the international global perspective?

Dan Moser:

Yeah, I can speak for Kansas State, but most land grant universities would have similar opportunities for study abroad, semester abroad type programs. I know at K State that we have faculty led trips to all parts of the globe, and some of those are two week or three week sort of trips, but we also have students that study abroad for a semester at a university. We actually have partnerships with several universities in Australia, so if they would like to go to Armidale, to the University of New England, that's something that we could facilitate, where a student from K State, goes there for a semester, takes a full semester of classes and transfers that back. We currently have students in Ireland and students in France, and last year we had a student in Uruguay, that were studying international agriculture there. So those opportunities really at any land grant university, students are going to have the same opportunity if they would like to travel abroad.

Shauna Hermel:

So kind of summarize what are the advantages, and I'll let each one of you have a chance at this, what are the advantages of getting that global perspective and actually getting your boots on the ground in another country to see what the cattle industry is like in that country?

Rebecca George:

Yeah, I love traveling and seeing different production systems. It's something I've had the opportunity to do quite a lot, both through university and through different programs such as the one that I'm here on. And for me, getting boots on the ground, seeing how they work their cattle, how they run their production system, it really gives you the whole picture. And being from Australia and a producer in Australia, I have always grown up with quite a good understanding of how important export markets can be because they're incredibly important to us. So getting to travel and experience different production systems and how they approach similar issues or different issues, biosecurity is always one that is incredibly interesting to see how different countries manage that, especially diseases that are of global importance, especially looking at other systems that may be producing the same products as us.
When I was studying in my undergraduate degree, I was able to travel to South America. We spent some time in Argentina and Uruguay. Argentina and Brazil, when I think of the live export market of beef, they're probably our biggest competitors. So it was really interesting to be able to go and see their beef production systems and how they get from A to B and what they do differently and what they do similarly to us and compare all that. And with traveling in different production systems comes different weather systems as well. So you might go somewhere and think, wow, that's a really great way to do it, and you go home and then look at your weather forecast and go, "Oh, it's not going to happen here, is it?" So I find that really interesting as well, there are so many different things that influence how a country or even a region within a country approaches a production system.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful, thank you.

Dan Moser:

Yeah, I just think from a food system perspective, it is fascinating. When I get to travel internationally, I always try to go to a grocery store and look at the products and some of them are very similar, some of the brands are very familiar, some of them are quite different too. And then to visit the operations and understand every place has their challenges, including here, and they're sometimes similar, sometimes they're a bit different, but the people are really the same when you really get to the root of it. And that's the part that I really enjoy, is getting to meet the people involved in all aspects of food production. And I think that it's really important for our students to understand the interconnectivity and to understand how there's really nothing more global than food production. And so anything we can do to build understanding across countries, I think is beneficial to all of us.

Shauna Hermel:

Wonderful. Rebecca, Dr. Dan Moser, thank you for stopping by and visiting with Angus at Work today.

Dan Moser:

Thank you.Rebecca George:

Thank you for having us.


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