Livestock Auction & International Antarctic Center

On Tuesday we went on two trips, a livestock auction and the International Antarctic Center. We went to the auction first which was actually pretty cool. One of the men working the auction talked to us about how it all works, how the animals are sorted and things like that. There were so many sheep and we did get to see them being auctioned off but that wasn't as exciting as the cattle auctioning. The sheep auctions were just done with the sheep in their pens and the caller standing on a platform just over the pen with the buyers in front of the pen and then they would walk over a few steps to the next pen and contine as such. For the cattle auctions which ever cattle (or set of cattle) were being auctioned came out into a ring and the bidders were sitting in auditorium style seats looking down at the cattle. While the cattle were in the ring therewas a man in there to make sure they went in and out. Once the bidding was done the cattle left through one gate and it started all over again. There were also a few calves and a few pigs as well but we did not see them getting auctioned.
After the auction we went to the International Antarctic Center which is kind of like a museum but it is also where the researchers and personel going to Antarctica with Italy, New Zealand and America's programs leave from. They are flown out by the United States Air Force so it is also tecinically an Air Force Base. While there we got a mini lecture about Antarctica, saw a short 4D movie, saw rescued blue penguins (which are not from Antarctica, they are native), experienced a wind storm in a storm simulator with wind chill causing temperatures to drop to -2 degrees, went on a Hägglund ride and had lunch. It was a pretty relaxed day, which is what we all needed!




The back half of the Hägglund
 

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 23, 2014 at 7:11 AM

    It feels like the Antarctic here this week! And, what is a Hagglund?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 23, 2014 at 3:55 PM

    I meant to post a picture of it! I'll put one at the bottom of my post :) it is hard to explain

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJanuary 23, 2014 at 7:52 PM

    Oh, cool!

    ReplyDelete

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