Thank You, Thank You!

First, I would like to thank the American Brahman Breeders Association for allowing me to travel to Australia and experience the trip of a lifetime!  Thank you to the Australian Brahman Breeders Association for having me and for coordinating the trip, also for looking out for me while I was there and for taking me to great families!

Thank you to the following families for welcoming me into their homes and for making me feel at home:  Kenrol Brahman Stud, Cole Family;  Cambil Brahmans, Camm Family;  Fern Hills, Brett McCamley Family; Voewood, Quinn Family; Fenech Brahman Cattle Co, Tony Fenech Family;  Lancefield Scott McCamley Family; Apis Creek, Olive Family; and Palmvale Red Brahmans, Streeter Family.  Also, a big thank you to those families who took the time to show me around their properties!

While in Australia, I met some really great people and have made life long friends.  I had the time of my life and I hope that I get the chance to come back one day! 

       - Brooke Prather

Brisbane Royal Queensland Show: "Ekka"

My last week in Australia FLEW by...I attended the Ekka in Brisbane with Wendy Cole of Kenrol Brahmans and Nick Curran of Spenbar Brahmans who was helping during the week.  The Ekka is an all breeds show from Beef and Dairy cattle to Horse competitions. I had a blast at the Ekka but the week went by way to quickly!

While at the Ekka I was able to see a few different things like the "Young Auctioneers" Competition.  This is when the new livestock agents come together and compete, by auctioning off three steers, to see who is the best; I really enjoyed watching it!

Show day was interesting, it was outside in an open arena, the arena was divided into several different rings so more than one breed was showing at a time.  After show day, we participated in the Grand Parade.  This was a huge parade of the Bull and Heifer Champions for each breed.

Here are a few pictures from the week...

The unstoppable Kenrol Team!

The showgrounds were right smack in the middle of the city!

 

  

Kenrol Dataman "Data" winning Reserve Champion Brahman Bull...excited!

One of the best ladies I know!

The grand parade lineup

 

Nudgee College Show Team, these guys were great! Thanks for all of the help!

 

 

The team at the end of the week, exhausted but still smiling :)

Palmvale Red Brahmans

 This week I am staying with the Streeter family in Malbrough, Qld.  Kearin and Beth Streeter along with their daughter Remy raise registered Red Brahmans on roughly 4,000 acres on their property named Palmvale Red Brahmans.  I met up with Remy at the Junior Beef Show in Rockhampton, this hardworking young lady keeps herself entertained by cracking a whip!  Since I've been here Remy has been practicing her whip cracking skills for the upcoming "whip cracking challenge" that will be held at the Malbrough Show Grounds this Saturday....GOOD LUCK REMY!  Kudos to her, because I would have whipped my ears off by now with all the practicing she has done!

Its been a busy week here at the Streeters, at the beginning of the week, we visited family friends of the Streeters at Stanage Bay which is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.  Yes, I can officially say that I have stuck my feet in the Pacific Ocean!  We went fishing and to a lookout over the ocean, unfortunately the only thing I caught were rocks!  It was nice to have a relaxing weekend and get an "energy boost" before the busy week ahead.

Catching rocks...

Group photo pn the lookout

Yesterday was busy busy, we had to pull a calf in the morning and get him to nurse his mother.  I was excited because I got to name him, I think he thinks I'm mom because he now follows me around everywhere.

 Meet Hercules...pretty tough little guy!

Then I got to wash the sale bulls for Brahman Week.  The bulls are l;ike big puppy dogs and love bieng bathed, crazy because 70 percent of the show calves I've had in my career have not liked the wash racks....

Palmvale El Paso, my new buddy!

Today we mustered a paddock of stud females, ones close to calving, and also put out dry lick and checked other paddocks for newborn calves.  I'm having a lovely time at the Streeter's and is looking forward to heading back to Kenrol on Thursday for the Ekka show in Brisbane.

Under the watchful eye of Lilly...

 "Pucker-up!"

Be on the lookout for future blog updates about the Ekka!



Apis Creek Brahman Stud

This past week I've had the pleasure of staying and working at Apis Creek in Malbrough, Qld.  Apis Creek is the home of Tim and Lynette Olive along with their two daughters Courtney and Alexandra.  This 50,000 acre property is located about 50 miles outside of the town of Malbrough where the Olive's run a Grey Brahman Stud and raise Charbray's and Brangus for their commercial herd.  Unfortunately Courtney, the eldest daughter, was away at boarding school this week and could not be there.

I first met up with the Olive family at the Paradise Lagoons Campdraft in Rocky, after a long fun weekend it was straight to work on Monday morning.  Every day started at 6 am with breakfast and did not end until after dark with dinner...the week flew by! I worked alongside three really great men this week; Mr. Tim and contract musters' Ian and Jamie.  These guys are absolutely great to work with, keeping the atmosphere fun and upbeat.  On Monday, we mustered a few steer paddocks with the helicopter, bikes and the Ute...not something you see everyday in Louisiana...  Needless to say I was in awe of the whole experience and snapped about a million and one photos of the chopper.  After the steers were in the laneway, Tony (the helicopter pilot) pulled up to re-fuel; we were hanging around the Ute talking about none other than Swamp People when Mr. Tim says "Brooke you ready to go up?" yep I got to go up in the chopper...best/most nerve-wracking experience ever!  If anyone is wondering what it feels like; I felt like I was strapped in an aluminum can whizzing, ducking, and diving above trees, creeks, and cattle!  It wasn't until after I got out of the chopper and on the ground that I realized the guys on the bike down below (laughing) could hear me freaking out from the two way on my headpiece...whoops.  Long story short, I had a great day and can't wait to go up again!

The rest of the week we processed 1200 weaner heifers, bulls, and steers; dehorning, vaccinating, branding, etc.  We also weighed and processed over 400 older steers who were being used in an HGP trial; the steers were broken up into three groups: (1) steers implanted with Compudose 400 (2) steers implanted with Revlorflex (3) no treatment control group, I recorded the initial and final weights of the steers as well as the ADG (average daily gain)%, I'm anxious to see the resutls of the trial in the future. All together, after the mustering,  we ran and processed over 3,000 head of cattle through the yards in one week.  It was a long week but it flew by, they say time flies when you're having fun!

I was pretty lucky to see both sides of Apis Creek during the week, the commercial and Stud.  During a "break" I was able to go for a drive around the paddocks with Mr. Tim, Mrs. Lynette, and Alexandra to look at the cattle and see what was beyond the yards.  It was great to see what was behind the weaners and steers we were processing all week.  Technically it was not a break because we had to fix a fence along the way!

On Wednesday night, I really felt like part of the family because I watched Alexandra loose her first tooth and be amazed that it did not hurt!  She ran around so excited that the tooth fairy would come that night and that she still looked like "Alexandra" and could whistle!  One of the cool things I got to experience was distance education; home-school via telephone.  Everyday Alexandra has a 45 minute "telly lesson" with her class which is based out of Rockhampton.  There are 5 kids in her Prep class and they have a main teacher who communicates with them though the telephone, each child has a headset and says their name when they would like to be called on or have finished an assignment.  The teacher will send out course work to be completed over two weeeks so that after the lesson the parents will work with the children to complete the work like a regular school day.  Pretty neat, she even had her own little school room!

I became very close with the Olive family working alongside them day in and day out and I'm happy to say that Apis Creek felt like home, thanks again to the Olives for everything, can't wait to go back!

Fenech Brahman Cattle Company and Lancefield Brahmans

Fenech Brahmans is the home of Tony and Joanne Fenech and their sons Will, his wife Tracey, and Chris. Located in Wowan, Qld, about an hour from Rockhampton, the Fenech's raise registered Grey and Red Brahmans and run a Brahman-cross commercial herd on 10,000 acres.

While at the Fenech's I was able to work with the bulls and females for the upcoming FBC sale in October. Work with the newly weaned heifers and bulls, educating them by tailing them on horseback in a stock saddle, very different from the American Western saddle...no horn! I also got to see a cloned female named Minnie. Miniie was cloned a few years ago and has been doing very well for the Fenech's having a high profiling calf each year.

By far my favorite part about my week at Fenech's was getting to know the kiddos! Will has three children, Rory, Jack, and Harrison...the sweetest kids! They jump right into the action as soon as school let's out, and have so much energy! The hardest part about moving from property to property is leaving great children behind after becoming so close, I've met so many amazing young people during my time here! I love meeting families with children as passionate about the industry as they are.

During my week with the Fenech's, I was able to spend a few days with Lancefield Brahman Stud just down the road. Scott and Lizette McCamley raise a predominately Gray Brahman stud and commercial herd on 70,000 acres. The McCamley's have two sons Ross and Ben who live and work on the property as well. Ross and his wife Jodi have two children Hailey (2) and Brody (4 months) also adorable kids!

I am very excited that I was able to visit Lancefield and see their cattle and the standard in which they select for. I was very impressed with their cattle and string of bulls for their upcoming sale. Although my time was short there, I was able to get to know this great hard-working family and I thank them for taking the time to show me around and making me feel welcome.

Here there and Everywhere!

I had a wonderful time at Fern Hills with the McCamley family. The two girls Cheyenne and Montana are like night and day, both unique in their own way. They reminded me of my brother and I when we were growing up. Cheyenne is quiet and giving with a heart the size of Texas, always willing to help out and will pick you up when you are down, like my brother. Montana on the other hand is firey and persistent, standing up for what she believes in no matter what, like me. Also, they are two of the most well mannered and well behaved kids I have ever met, they offer to do the dishes and iron! Just goes to show that they have two great parents who have raised their children to be young adults. Janice McCamley is a lovely lady who would do anything for her girls and took me in like one of her own. I cannot thank her enough for that! Brett McCamley is pretty lucky to have such wonderful girls in his life! I learned alot from him while I was there, he is very passionate about his cattle and I thank him for sharing his knowledge of the industry with me.

This past weekend, I attended the Calliope camp draft with the McCamley family. I had a lot of fun watching and snapping photos of the participants. It was nice to catch up with the familar faces that I met at the last camp draft and meet new people as well. I would like to thank everyone that I have met along the way for being so welcoming and making me feel at home!

On Thursday I arrived at "Voewood" home of Dennis, Dennise, and Edward Quinn. The Quinn's run a registered Grey Brahman Stud as well as a commercial cattle herd on 14,500 acres about 45 minutes outside of Calliope. Edward explained to me that they strictly cull their cattle according to temperament and structure; this allows them to run a successful and profitable operation. Over the past few days, I have been able to tour the property and help with the sale bulls for Brahman week. I am looking forward to the rest of my time with the Quinn's and will be heading to Fenech Brahmans at the end of the week.

I hope all is well at home, see you all very soon!

Fern Hills

Good Morning!  It's been a cold week at Fern Hills but a gorgeous one at that, not sure if I mentioned it but Fern Hills is surrounded by hills and mountain ranges creating the most beautiful scenery.  Since my last post, I have been busy around the property, doing everyday tasks as well as bringing bulls to the Beef Breeding Services to be collected.

While at Fern Hills, I was able to take a day trip out to Rockley Brahmans, a Red Brahman Stud just down the road from the McCamley's.  Chris and Ashley Kirk took me on a tour of their property and I was able to look at their sale bulls for Brahman Week in October.  I had a great time with the Kirk's, they made sure to inform me that they would be watching "my people" on TV this week....yes everyone Swamp People has just recently aired in Australia.

Wednesday I traveled to Emerald which is about 3 hours from Bajool for the Agrow field day.  This was a huge event featuring everything in agriculture.  The main part of the field day was the bull sale featuring mainly Charolais bulls.  After the sale, Janice and I walked around the shops and to my mother's surprise I did not spend all of my money!  I had a very nice time at the field day and was able to see some very interesting things, like a stuffed dingo...which scared me to death! 

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and good luck to all of the exhibitors at the All American!

Much Needed Update

Since my last post alot has happened, and I have finally found time to blog about it!  Sorry about the long wait, I'm staying very busy and have barely any time to write so this will be a long one!

I attended the Proserpine Show with the Camm family and headed back to Rocky with Timbrel Brahman Stud.  At the prossie show, I was able to help Timbrel exhibit a few of their cattle and also participated in Paraders where I placed second.  I've met some really great people over the past month and have made lasting friendships.  We had a bit of a rough take off from the Prossie show, once all of the cattle and equiptment were loaded onto the cattle truck and packed in the Ute, one of the  cattle trucks would not start...not going to lie, I was kind of glad it did because it was pretty cool to see how they fixed these massive trucks.  Once off, we had a 6 hour drive to Rockhampton.

Back in Rocky, I had a day to wash clothes, re-pack, and prepare everything for the Junior Beef Show.  This show was alot of fun and very different from our Junior shows.  It is for anyone who wants to participate up to age 25.  Once signed up, every Junior has to participate in every event, separated by different age groups.  O and here is the catch, parents are not allowed to do the bulk of the work, basically they can be there to supervise and thats it.  Kenrol brought three heifers and two bulls for the juniors to show, once there I was assigned four kids to be on my show team: Tyler, Nathan, Paris, and Axel.  We had a great week, fantastic kids who grew over the weekend, the cattle did as well....I'm surprised any of them still had hair left!

Day one: On the first day we attended learning sessions in our age groups, I attended the Preg-testing session and was able to preg-test on a dummy cow.  In that session, we also learned how to AI and feel real reproductive tracks from different females.  Also, I attended a NLIS, National Livestock Identification System, session where they discussed the proper way to tag animals and the benefits of the NILS tags and so forth.  Finally, we attended a steer and stud cattle judging demonstration to round out the day.  After tea (dinner), each group participated in "Bush Olympics" which reminded me of the '08 All American in Fort Smith, Arkansas when we played "Barnyard Olympics" for the first time and everyone loved it!

Day two:  At 8 am sharp, all 120 exhibitors loaded two charter buses dressed in slacks and sportscoats, headed to the Gracemere sale yards to judge prime, it was a long morning.  After judging four classes and each age group speaking on a different one, we headed back to the show grounds for lunch and to judge stud cattle; three classes of stud cattle and reasons on one set.  I was pretty pleased with myself, I placed second in prime and thrid in stud cattle for the age group 18-25.  Everyone tested their singing abilities that night with team karyoke...yikes.  The red stars, my team, won third! 

Day three:  Show day, the most important day.   The morning started off with Interbreed led cattle judging and rounded out with Junior Paraders.  Our team did fantastically, Tyler won fifth with Shindowa, Paris won thrid with Polly, Axel won first with the polly red bull, and Red Lady won first in class and Reserve Calf Champion.  In Juniro Paraders, I placed thrid in my age group.  Honestly this was the hardest showmanship competetion I've ever participated in.  We walked on lap around the ring, set up, and then the judge took our showsticks away!  We had to show the rest of the class without a cane!  Also, we switched calves just to make it more interesting..pretty intense.  All in all, it was a great show and I really enjoyed working with the young people.  Once again, thank you to the Australian Brahman Breeders Association for allowing me to participate in Junior Beef 2011.

Finally, we are caught up!  On Friday, I arrived at Fern Hills in Bajool, a small town on the outskirts of Rockhampton.  Fern Hills is a Red Brahman cattle stud home to Brett and Janice McCamley and their two daughters Cheyenne and Montana.  Satuday and Sunday, I attended my first Camp-Draft with the McCamley's.  It is very hard to explain since I have never seen anything like it in the states.  There are two sections of the ring, the camp and the course.  Exhibitors have to first cut a calf from the camp and take it out onto the course and complete and clover leaf pattern around two pegs and finally take the calf through the gate.  The first peg will earn you two points, the second peg one point, and the gate one point for a total of four points on the course.  Exhibitors are also judged on horsemanship and ability to cut the calf from the camp and so one.  I had alot of fun this weekend and am very excited to attened the Calliope Camp-Darft next weekend.

I will try and update my blog as much as I can, thanks for following my travels, see you all very soon!  I cannot believe that it was a month yesterday since I've been here, time is flying.

Cambil Brahmans

Good Morning everyone!

It is day 3 at Cambil Brahmans and I've finally got my computer and internet working so let me catch you up to speed!  I am staying at the home of Bill and Tolma Camm which sits right in the middle of two seperate mountain ranges.  Let me just say that I have a pretty awesome view from my window!  Cambil Brahmans is roughly 3000 acres; mostly spread out among seperate properties.  Along with raising Brahman cattle, the Camm family are also sugarcane farmers.  According to Bill, about 1700 acres of their property is for sugarcane. 

On Monday, I woke up and went to the kitchen dressed for the day in jeans, a t-shirt and my LSU cap (basically what I've been wearing every day) before we left, Bill says "Ah Brooke you won't need that cap, we will get you an Aussie hat" and goes to his room and comes back with an Akubra.  So yep, I'm officially an Aussie and have been wearing the Akubra every day since.  We went for a drive around the property and helped to round up cattle for the Proserpine show which is this Friday and Saturday.  Along with the "led cattle" classes, there are also group classes such as: a pen of three steers not weighing more than 500 kilos, and so on.  All ready for this weekend!

Lawson, Bill and Tolma's son, also runs Cambil Brahmans; cool thing is, he came to the U.S. on the Hudgins Scholarship and stayed with various Brahman ranches about 16 years ago.  Now he is married to a lovely lady named Sophie and they have 5 children; Georga, Mitchell, Liam, Charlie, and James.  Georga is 13 and is taller than me! Mitchell is very into showing and will be showing at the show this weekend,  Charlie is dad's little helper, he even gets to drive the small tractor to feed the bulls!  Liam never wears shoes and is prettey much indestructable, and James is 3 and the cutest little kid I have ever seen, and not shy one bit! By the way, all of the kids have very thick Australian accents and say things like: "pardon" and "right-o" makes me laugh!

Tuesday, I was able to go to the sugarcane fields with Bill and see how they planted and prepared the land for the upcoming crop.  Driving through the endless cane fields, I definately felt like I was home in Louisiana.  I was able to see some pretty cool wildlife, these huge birds about 3 or 4 ft. tall were wondering around the paddocks when we drove up, they are called brolga's.  They are grey and red with massive claws and long beaks, they kind of reminded me of a small ostrich with less feathers.  On the way to check cattle at a different property, I saw about 30 wallabe's!  A wallabe is pretty much a mini kangaroo and are about 4 ft. tall; pretty cool! Sadly, the only kangaroo I have yet to see in Australia was a dead one on the side of the road yesterday morning...

Today, which is Wednesday, I was able to do some pretty cool things and get down and dirty.  We sorted and grouped the cattle going to the show and had to weigh and mouth them.  Then came the paint branding; for the show, the pen cattle classes have to be paint branded with the class number and exhibitor number on either side of their back.  We used red paint, so needless to say I was covered in red paint...  That was fun, but the best part about today was that I got to drive the Ute around the paddock and into town.  I was so nervous that I was going to ease onto the wrong side of the road!  Everything felt backwards, I had to drive a standard left handed, but I survived and the Ute is still in one piece!

Beach Break!

One of the amazing things about Australia is the fact that it is a small country and continent but very diverse!  Thursday night, I took a Charter bus 7 hours to a very small town in Queensland called Proserpine; home of the Camm family.  This week I will be staying at Cambil Brahmans, a Brahman cattle ranch that is also home to acres of sugarcane fields as far as the eye can see.  Bill and Tolma Camm, along with their son Lawson and his wife Sophie and five children are graciously hosting me this week.  I am also looking forward to this weekend, I will be traveling to the Proserpine Cattle Show with Lawson and his children who will be participating.  I love watching the junior exhibitors show here, it reminds me of the young members at home; they share the same passion and love for Brahman cattle and showing 15,000 miles apart.

In just 7 hours, I feel as though I have entered into a whole new world!  Proserpine is about 15 minutes from a small beach town, Airlie Beach, located right on the coast.  Airlie Beach is part of the Whitsundays, which also includes includes 72 islands off the coast of Australia, or in other words...just a boat ride away. :)  Unlike Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia, Proserpine is near the coast and is definitely a small town!

I was able to take the weekend off and go to the beach to see the barrier reef and experience a completely different side of Australia.  I'm so glad I did!  The beaches are pure white and the water is crystal blue, not to mention once out on the islands it is so peaceful and quiet...seriously like heaven on Earth.  I am really glad that I was able to experience this amazing place with a fellow Brahman friend Crystal Ahrnes from Arkansas.  Crystal has been in Australia since May working on a research project with the university in Brisbane and also on a cattle station a few hours from Proserpine.  We were both interested in going to the reef so we coordinated dates and decided to go at the same time!  That's one of the great things about showing Brahman cattle, I have made friends all over the US and the world. 

At the beach, we were able to go shopping at the local markets, swimming, snorkeling, and go to a lookout over the prettiest place I've ever seen!  Seriously, the lookout we were at is on the front of a post card!  All in all, we had a great time and now I am sunburnt again, but it was definitely worth it!  Who knows, it might turn into a tan....

Pictures cannot begin to describe the beauty of this place but here are some of my favorites :)

 

 

 A picture is worth 1000 words right? :)

Last Few Days at Kenrol

G'day mate! (I'm starting to feel like a real Aussie) Haha!

I've been pretty busy lately and have barely found time to blog; so, I'm going to catch up now!  First things first, this past Thursday was my final day at Kenrol Brahman Stud for a few week; I will return later this month for the Junior Beef Show.  It was a crazy week, filled with early mornings and late nights.  Since I have been at Kenrol, we have been preparing donor females to flush and receipts for the embryos.  With eleven donor females, and double the amount of receipts, we had our work cut out for us!  The donors were given injections to increase the number of eggs released during ovulation and were carefully monitored to see when they came in heat and later artificially inseminated.  The receipts were also monitored to see when they came into heat and were then matched with the donor females that had similar cycles.  This is where the early mornings and late nights come in!

On Wednesday, the Vet came by to begin the flush process.  This was very exciting for me because I was able to be physically involved in the flush and I also got to see how the embryos were retrieved, evaluated, and placed into small syringes with a very fine flexible tube in place of a needle.  The receipt females were surgically implanted with the embryos from donor females.  I was able to watch the vet cut and enter either the left or right side of the female (depending on which ovary she ovulated on) and inject the embryo into the uterine horn.  Since this was a surgical procedure, the receipts were then stitched up.  In about 6 weeks, the receipts will have their stitches removed and will be preg tested.

Another cool thing about this week; I was able to help with the plunge dip for the second time.  The cattle we dipped last week will have to be dipped a second time to insure that they are tick free.  The property in which the cattle came from is in a tick populated area and the feedlot where they are headed is located in a "tick free zone" so in order for the cattle to be sold to the feedlot they have to be 100% tick free.  Crazy thing is, if the inspectors find a single tick on any one of the cattle being brought to the "tick free zone", the entire load will be dismissed and will have to be sent back to be dipped again.  So fingers crossed the cattle will be tick free after the second dip!


Here are some better pictures from the dip as promised!

Waiting to enter the dip.

Exiting the dip.

After exiting the dip, cattle are held in a holding pen for five minutes before returning to their paddocks.

I still cannot get over the beauty of the Australia sky, its amazing!

A Bird's Eye View

One of the cool things about Kenrol, is the amazing amount of wild birds that seem to hang around.  Besides the cockatoos, these amazing rainbow colored birds come to visit the kitchen window every morning for a snack.  My first day at the Cole's I noticed a small door inside the window above the sink which resembled a small cat door.  I could never figure out what that door was used for until a few days later when two birds were waiting patiently outside the window and Vicki gave them a treat!  Crazy right?

These beautiful wild birds come to the window every day looking for a treat, so today we went outside to feed them and this is what happened....

Amazing!