It was hard to miss the staff from Central Queensland University (CQUni) during Beef Australia 2018, due to the multitude of events occurring that the university was involved with over the course of the show.
Research communications and engagement manager Michael Thomson said CQUni is a major sponsor of Beef 2018, as the research and tertiary education partner, which was an investment made for a couple of reasons.
“Beef is the biggest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and if you want to get in front of the beef industry this is the place to be, where all of the industry comes together in one place at one time,” Mr Thomson said.
“As the local university to Rockhampton, the beef capital, this is the bread and butter community that we want to be a part of, and be serving.
“CQUni prides itself on its engagement with the beef community, and at Beef the staff can find out how to service their needs better, and tap into some opportunities together.”
Mr Thomson said CQUni’s focus over the course of Beef has been on a few different fronts.
“As the tertiary education partner we wanted to showcase our capability in higher education, including our Bachelor of Agriculture degree, our post-grad courses, and the vocational traineeships we have with the likes of QATC Emerald.
“We also wanted to use Beef as an opportunity to demonstrate our research capabilities, showing how we can use the technologies that we’re developing to solve problems for cattle producers, and the cattle supply chain.”
He said the CQUni marquee at Beef featured an interactive walkthrough, which has proven a hit with the smallest five-year-old cattleman to the big kids.
“Everything in the marquee can be touched for which they’ll get a response in an interactive way, they can see the technology in action, and start to understand how it can apply in their own lives and businesses.
“We also had a lot of people coming in interested in the Bachelor of Ag opportunities.”
Mr Thomson said CQUni was the naming rights sponsor of the Beef Australia Symposium, which was about engaging with the industry at a corporate and government level.
“Guests had a chance to network, and get a better understanding of opportunities that are at play in the global conversation and where we all fit into that picture, it was a great opportunity to connect.”
CQUni also hosted a property tour of the AgForce-owned Belmont Research Station.
“We have a great partnership with AgForce, and it provides a great opportunity for producers to get involved in research, and to find out what producers want from research.
“The tour also featured the launch of the Central Queensland Livestock Centre of Excellence, which is a collaboration between AgForce, CQUni, the Qld Department of Agriculture, and QATC.
“The centre allows us to utilise each others capabilities so that we can do more for the beef industry in CQ.”
A CQUni-hosted Northern Beef Careers seminar was held which saw more than 60 high school students arriving to learn about careers in agriculture.
“It allowed students to make enquiries with people from a diverse range of career paths in ag, to help guide them towards the path they want to pursue.”
He said across the Beef week the staff have meeted and greeted as many people as they can.
“Beef provides a great opportunity for collaboration, which has led to a raft of new ideas coming out, it’s a fantastic event for making that happen.”