Private consultant Dick Whale utilises a measured and pragmatic approach when discussing genetics and end markets with his clients, belying his enthusiasm for the Australian beef industry.

He used the same approach when considering what impact winning the Angus Youth Scholarship to the University of Illinois in 1984 had on his career and his life.

“I don't honestly know whether my career would have gone the same way without it, but it's hard to imagine it would have,” Mr Whale said.

Mr Whale was in his early 30s, managing the beef herd at the Department of Agriculture's Trangie Research Centre when he was awarded the scholarship.

In January, 1985, he took part in several classes for four months at the University of Illinois , including the meat science course, which had a major influence on his career.

The assessment of pigs, lambs and cattle live as to their carcase attributes before evaluating the same animals as carcases made Mr Whale aware of the bigger picture.

Mr Whale said the emphasis on carcass and marketing in the US in the mid-80s was “light years” ahead of Australia .

“There was nothing like that in Australia at the time. We were cattle breeders not beef breeders in those days,” he said.

“My time in the US changed me from a cattle breeder to a beef breeder.”

Mr Whale said the animal science course helped him focus his direction in the industry and he changed employment to the ICM Feedlot at Peechelba on his return to Australia .

“That course fired me up and when I returned to Australia I moved to the feedlot industry.

“I had always been interested in livestock but my time at Illinois made me want to work in the feeding and marketing side and I felt the feedlot industry was the best place to achieve that.”

 

Dick Whale, who went to Illinois 1984

Mr Whale spent ten years at ICM, choosing it because it was feeding cattle and processing them at its own abattoir 30 kilometres away at Yarrawonga.

“ICM fed 27,000 cattle in the first year I was there and 44,000 the following year and I drafted every one.”

Mr Whale drafted all animals for the first six years at ICM and would go to the abattoir two to three times a week to assess the carcases on the kill floor and assess reports from the boning room to satisfy his hunger for knowledge tapped by his time at Illinois .

“Prior to going to the States, I thought I'd manage beef herds,” he said. “The scholarship inspired me to take the next step.”

Mr Whale joined Elders in 1996.

“Elders had a conception to consumption vision and I joined them because I thought that's the way the industry was going.”

Mr Whale has been a private consultant since 2004, providing advice on genetics to commercial and seedstock producers.

“I feel a strong connection to the Angus Society for giving me that opportunity and I think all the people of my generation that won scholarships hold a similar connection.

“If you pressed me and asked how my blood bleeds, I'd have to say black.”

Soucred from the 2009 Summer Journal