JBS and Webb Ranch

Day 3:

After our visit to the JBS Abattoir

Our first stop this morning was at the JBS Abattoir in the Brooklyn area of Melbourne. this was an amazing operation with great efficiency. Just to throw some numbers out there to gain a better understanding; they process around 5000 sheep and just under a thousand head of cattle daily. It takes roughly 30 minutes to process a beef carcass before chilling for 24 hours and an additional 30 minutes to process and package to the point where it is ready to ship to the retailer (Coles being the major supermarket is the most focused on). They employ roughly 1200 employees to operate this facility; each being a 14% increase in cost of production. Although they do not have the same products as sold in the United States, they are opening new segments such as per-seasoned and pre-cooked beef and lamb to their customers here in Australia. The major difference I saw between the two countries were their primary focuses. While in the United States we focus on quality and yield grade and the natural and hormone free beef is purely a niche market and lamb only consuming a small portion of the market, Australian beef and lamb is HGP (hormone growth promotant) free due to the demand from their customers and has a great emphasis on natural grass fed beef and lamb. The last difference I observed was the high demand from Coles for bone and offal used in many popular dishes here in Australia.

The Webb ranch on a rainy day

 Later we ventured to the Webb Black Simmental ranch. Unfortunately it was raining so we did not get to view all of the roughly 1600 acres but we did get to see the sale ring and catch pens and I must say they were VERY nice. We had a good discussion with the Webb brothers regarding the introduction of the Simmental breed to Australia and the operation itself. All in all I was impressed with the organization and boldness to be one of the first large Simmental breeders in Australia and wish them the best of luck.