Blue skies and sunshine prevail in the Flint Hills

Following a very bleak start to my time in Kansas, the broad blue skies and sunshine have finally this week prevailed. That's welcome news to an Aussie girl. Along with the improved weather has come an opportunity to see some of the vast pastures in this part of the world, the Flint Hills of Kansas. Common forage crops and pastures here include alfalfa (Lucerne), seed canary grass (type of phalaris), brome, buffalo grass, Bermuda grass, switch grass, birdsfoot trefoil (type of lotus), orchard grass (Cocksfoot), red clover, forage sorghum, and ryegrass. It's interesting to note that a lot of these plant types are similar to that which we use for livestock forage back in the New England region of NSW, Australia.

Average annual rainfall is also quite similar between the two areas; thirty five inches here in Kansas and thirty three inches back at home. But mean temperatures over the season are significantly different here in Kansas with cooler temperatures and regular snow fall in winter, along with warmer temperatures in summer. Combine that with an elevation of only three hundred metres, compared with just over 1050 metres in Glen Innes, NSW, and that makes for some significant farming and grazing differences between the two locations. But regardless of those differences, beef production principles remain the same.

I've had the opportunity this week to spend some one on one time with one of my lecturers who has given me some real insight into the comparisons and differences between the production and marketing of beef here in the US and in Australia. Being a majority feeder cattle market here in the US there is less grass fed production, but the principles of fertility, longevity and animal health remain crucial regardless of the market in which cattle are destined. Our grass fed system outside of Glen Innes, Australia utilises those very same principles as the crux of our operation.

A close friend asked me before I left Australia what I could learn about beef cattle production in the US that would help me better manage our breeder operation at home. At the time I wasn't sure, but now that I'm here and learning in the US beef industry, I can see how strong the correlation is between beef systems across the world and the fundamental need for efficient, sustainable production.