Registrations are as strong as ever for the Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging 2016 program, with participants from ten Australian universities and four international groups.

A total of 140 students and 36 coaches are registered from across the globe for this year’s event, now in its 27^th year.

Students involved in an earlier ICMJ judging event

The international contingent this year includes the Japanese and Korean national teams, Bogor University from Indonesia and Garden City Community College from the US.

Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga will again host the five-day event, starting on Tuesday 5 July with Teys Australia hosting the final competition at its Wagga facility.

The annual ICMJ program continues to lay strong foundations for red meat supply chain by educating and injecting enthusiastic graduates into a range of diversified careers in the meat and livestock sector. This vision has been strongly backed by Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Meat Processors Corporation and Australian Pork Ltd.

ICMJ association president, Dr Peter McGilchrist, said as demand for Australian products continued to grow around the world, the career opportunities for graduates becomes ever stronger, especially for those with intimate whole of supply chain familiarity.

“The growth of the ICMJ program continues to bring graduates and businesses together,” Dr McGilchrist said.

“Demand for ICMJ graduates has never been better, given that agriculture is currently seen as one of the large growth industries. ICMJ not only provides students with a greater knowledge of meat judging and the attributes of trimness, muscling and quality that make up the evaluation process, it also provides students with the skills of decision making and justification.”

“The program continues to provide industry leaders through its graduates, now in the thousands, and continues to be highly regarded within the industry during recruitment,” Dr McGilchrist said.

Participants of the intuitive program will get a unique insight into the meat and livestock supply chains through addresses from key industry figures. Speakers this year include AMPC’s Estelle Lifran; Lambpro director Tom Bull; Dr Dave Pethick from Murdoch University; and Bryce Camm from Wonga Plains feedlot.

The five day program includes presentations, interactive workshops, meat judging training and a contest involving the judging of lamb, beef and pork carcases and primals.

Ten finalists will be selected to undertake a five day Meat Standards Australia training course in Brisbane, where they will also receive a comprehensive introduction to the Australian meat processing sector.

Five of these students will then be selected to take part in a month-long industry tour of the US – a once in a lifetime opportunity to gain exposure to US livestock production, meat processing, meat research and meat grading systems, while also competing at an international level.

Dr McGilchrist said the response to this year’s program from universities, presenters and sponsors was an indication of the value ICMJ delivers to the industry.

“This year’s program not only has an impressive lineup of speakers but industry support through sponsorship has been stronger than ever,” he said.

“Without industry support, the program would not be able to expose these students to the exciting opportunities and challenges within our industry.”

Universities involved this year include: University of New England, Tocal Agricultural College, University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, University of Adelaide, Murdoch University, Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga, University of Sydney, University of Queensland, Garden City Community College US, Japan National team, Korea National Team, Bogor Agricultural University Indonesia.