Students from across the world have again gathered in Wagga for the 2025 Intercollegiate Meat Judging Association National Conference. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Agriculture and vet students from around the world are gathering in Wagga to take part in the 2025 Intercollegiate Meat Judging Association (ICMJ) National Conference, with one American participant highlighting the quality of Australian lamb.
Students from Australia, Japan and the United States are at Charles Sturt University for a week-long program to take part in the conference, as well as learn about potential career paths within the meat industry.
Alongside the seminars and careers expo was a meat judging competition held at Teys Australia on Thursday (10 July). Eleven Australian universities competed in the meat judging this year, alongside Japanese and American teams.
“What better place in Australia to have it?” Charles Sturt University Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Professor Jason White said.
“We’re in the heart of lamb and beef production.
“We’re reasonably central, we’ve got people coming down from Townsville and across from Perth.
“We’ve got incredibly proud histories in the agricultural sector, going right back to the establishment of experimental farm, Wagga Ag College and now Charles Sturt University.”
Taylor Colvin, a third-year agriculture student at Texas A&M University, was surprised by the quality of lamb in Australia.
“Y’all eat a lot more lamb,” she said.
“Back in Texas, I’ve tried lamb and I am not a fan of it there, but here it is very good.
“The quality is amazing and it is also cooked amazing. So y’all figured that out for sure.”
Ben Graham, a third-year Bachelor of Agriculture student at Charles Sturt University, said he was eager to learn from industry experts from other countries but still had his eyes on the prize.
“It’s quite cool to see everyone coming from all over Australia and all over the world,” he said.
“How they judge their meat is very different to here. So it’s good for us to also learn off them.
“Don’t know about having in the bag, but we’re definitely competitive.”
ICMJ President Peter McGilchrist said the conference was about showing the huge range of careers students could pursue within the agriculture industry.
“They’ll go into all sorts of things like marketing and international sales. You could even be in documentation or development of technologies,” he said.
“One guy, he’s an engineer and develops robots to cut things more accurately and to trim bits of meat.
“We’re just showcasing all the huge range of careers in our industry.”
