Small towns are the place to be

Wagga Wagga sale yards was a hopping place this morning when we arrived to their Monday cattle sale. We were able to witness the morning auction and learn how their sale process really works. This was very interesting comparing thier sale yard to the St. Joe stockyard (the only sale yard I'm actually familiar with) or the typical American stockyards. Some buyers had a secretive signal that they used to signal the auctioneer. The auctioneer truly had to know their customers. 

We then headed across the road to Cargill meat processing plant. When we arrived we had to dress in our "marshmallow suits", needless to say, these weren't the most attractive outfits in the world...Once we were in the suits we were able to go on a tour of the plant. This was quite interesting to see the differences between the Cargill and JBS plants. One of the main differences between the two was the organization in the boning room. At Cargill you were able to follow the different products from the hanging to the finished product. We were also able to see the processing of different specialty foods, such as the tongue and stomachs. 

Our outfits for Cargill, what fun! 

Off to Temora for lunch, we headed! Temora was a truly rural Australian town. It reminded me a lot of Plattsburg except in Australia.We were able to walk around the town a bit and see how rural Australia is. I visited the chemist, Christian bookstore, post office, and other various stores. There was some very nice people in the town and it was fun to visit with them. 

How cool! (It's basically a clothing store with a few video games.) 

Next up on the rigorous itinerary was a stop at the Cargill feedlot. We were able to take a look at the operation and see how cattle are finished here. This was truly interesting experience, having no feedlot experience previously. They feed about 17,000 but have the capacity to hold 30,000. That's a lot of cattle!

So far we still haven't had any luck on the hunt for the Roos! 

Sydney tomorrow! 

MaryAnn