06/16/06 New Zealand comments

New Zealand Comments Recently a Washington state trade mission group went to Australia and New Zealand. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back with some observation from one of the members. A Washington State trade mission to Australia and New Zealand headed up by Governor Christine Gregoire and including Jack Field, executive vice-president of Washington Cattlemen's Association just returned home so I called Jack to talk about the trip. Of course the animal ID issue was one of the main topics at each stop, but I asked what other observations interested him. Jack said they were driving south of Aukland, New Zealand to visit a station when he kept seeing pastures full of young Holstein and Jersey bulls or bullocks as they call them in New Zealand. Jack finally asked one of the natives about the large number of bulls and found out they were part of the grass-fed beef you commonly hear about coming out of Australia and New Zealand. He said the young bulls took from two and a half to three and a half years to be considered finished by grass-fed standards. The New Zealanders thought it was quite odd when Jack told them we would never graze that many bulls without them being castrated. The grass fed animals Jack observed were able to graze through the winter but didn't gain much weight for those rainy months since the grass was too lush with a very high moisture content. Those grass-fed cattle being used for beef did let Jack figure out why the steaks there were so much tougher than he was used to here in the United States. I'm Jeff Keane.