Everlasting Farm

2011-09-24T11:10:00.000+08:00

at the Nuffield Conference giving a presentation to Nuffield partners on bloging

Bertini

2010-09-16T21:13:00.000+08:00

The main reason for staying in Rosario is to visit Bertini no till seeders. I've been wanting to go zero till with discs for years but I haven't been able to find one that I think will do the job at home. A friend put me onto this place and senior Bertini showed me around and explained the whole system. One of the biggest innovations is the plates holding down the stubble so the discs cut it and not hair pin the stubble. The other is the parallelogram placing the weight over the centre of the disc forcing it down while cultivating a seed bed with the front coulter at depth while place the seed with great accuracy. If you've made it this far reading this you will understand what I'm saying. I love the system but the only thing I don't like are the seed boxes on the top, but again it's all part of the system because you need the weight to keep the disc in the ground. I want one, lets hope we have a good year.

Rosario and other stuff

2010-09-16T20:48:00.001+08:00

Rosario is one of Argentina's oldest cities. The National flag came from here and many of the locals still believe it should have remained the capital. Argentina is very different to other countries in south America, in that it's incredibly nationalistic with flags every were even more so that the US. They have only one political party, the Peron party, which is like in Australia having only the Liberals to vote for and then having factions inside that party forming government.

Agriculture is one of the only industries making money here so the government put 35% tax on wheat to cross subsidise other industries, thus very little wheat was grown this year which was one of the driver's in the surge of the wheat price. Crazy place!! Oh and in case your thinking of driving, their all mad, they drive like lunatics. You go to love this place, it's never dull.

Mendoza Red

2010-09-16T20:30:00.000+08:00

I have to confess, I'm a bit of a fan of the red stuff. So when the opportunity came to visit one of Argentina's largest and most prestigious wineries came up, I was there. Bodegas Lopez produces 50 million litres of wine every year with 95% consumed locally. They use traditional Spanish wine making techniques, aging in oak for up to 6 years their reds and producing dry "easy drinking"wines. The signature wine for the region is Malbec, a dry red grown at altitude. It contributes 60% of the red wine produced and it's very good.

Getting high in the mountains

2010-09-16T20:12:00.000+08:00

Traveling from Uruguay to Argentina I couldn't pass the opportunity to visit the Andes. So i traveled to Mendoza for a two day break to indulge in two of my favorite things, mountains ( I you'd to teach outdoor education before farming) and wine (mostly school kids!).

The Andes where spectacular to say the least, we traveled to 3,100m ,above sea level on the road to Chile stopping at the boarder before the tunnel through the mountain. This pass has been used since the late 1800 and in 1910 the first narrow gauge railway was put in which only stopped in the 70's when Argentina and Chile built the existing road and trucks took over the transport. Looking at the rail line, I'd take the road any day.

The Andes have always been a place of recreation and there are ski resorts and thermal springs along the road, which are closed this season because there was no snow. Normally there would be 1m of snow on the mountains but due to the La Nina weather patten it's been very dry, all of the rain has been in the east coast of Australia instead.

Show day

2010-09-11T09:51:00.000+08:00

Uruguay's National agricultural show is like any other in the world, except maybe Iowa's state fair. The sheep and cattle are prepped to show, machinery's out for display, there's the show ring and of coarse there's plenty of food.

This is my last stop in Uruguay and I just want to thank Roberto (standing with me by the Argentinian BBQ) for all the help in putting the trip together and all the others that have made this part of the trip so memorable. It's the second time I've been here and I don't think it will be the last, the people are great and always go out of there way to make you feel welcome and most speak English, which is great when if like me your hopeless at Spanish.

Adios Uruguay, Muchas Gracias.

SUL

2010-09-11T09:34:00.000+08:00

Ignacio Abella took me to the Sul research farm about two hour out from Montevideo. SUL is the Secretariado Uruguayo De La Lana, in other words, Uruguay's wool Board. Ignacio studied in Australia at Amidale UNE and knows many of the people I'm involved with in the sheep CRC. We had a great day looking around the farm as Ignacio explained the pasture and systems and showed me some of the differences between our two systems. One being the bales of wool. Many years ago, Australia started trialing plastic bales instead of nylon or jute ones, well it caught on in Uruguay and but not Australia and they now baned them with wire. Another difference is in Australia if your going into a wet paddock you take a 4x4 and not a small front wheel drive car! Cheers Ignacio, thanks for the great day.

Miguel's farm

2010-09-11T09:16:00.000+08:00

I traveled not far out of Montevideo to Miguel Jimenez De Arechaga's (second from the left) farm. He had 165 ha's under irrigation with half in crop to corn and soy and the other half to Oats, rye grass and lucerne for grazing his 1600 ewes. The rotation was 3 years of pasture then 3 years crop. This is the first time in my travels of 4 months that I have seen a mixed farming enterprise where they rotate crop and livestock. You may also notice that the sheep still have there tails. Uruguay doesn't have the Lucy fly, so they don't get breach strike, thus they haven't needed to mules their sheep.

One of the other things we discussed was the affect the Australian wool politics has on Uruguay. While Australia leads the world in wool it's actions also affect other nations and their sheep flocks. The more I travel the world and talk with other farmers, the more I realize that we all share the same problems and we all need to work closer together.

Mercedes

2010-09-09T00:35:00.001+08:00

I stayed in this very typical town over night. It's on the river Negro and it must be beautiful l in the summer. It's a very rural town in the centre of the largest aricultural area of Uruguay.

Montevideo to Mercedes

2010-09-09T00:29:00.000+08:00

I spent all of today traveling though the centre of Uruguay directly north of Montevideo to Durazno and then across to Mercedes. This area is traditionally grazing but is being pushed into by large companies looking for more ground to crop. Seen as poorer soils to those on the western half of Uruguay farmer in this area have never tried growing crops. So some large companies from Argentina are coming in and share cropping and purchasing land. The country is much like what we farm in Australia and the crops grow well.

The hole in the system seem to be the amount of Soy beans grown. It's 70% of the crop every year and thus not a lot of rotation between crops and soy leaves very little ground cover and the soils are prone to wash away even under no till. The Uruguayan government has now stepped in and asking for agronomic plans prior to planting and in time may insist on three years of pasture and only two crops on the more fragile soils.

Montevideo

2010-09-06T08:58:00.000+08:00

Arrived today in Montevideo, Uruguay, to start my South American trip.The city centre is built on the ocean front and thus miles of high rise along the coast. I had to go shopping tonight for cloths as I arrived without my bag thanks to AA again having lost it mid trip. The shops are open 7 days till 10 pm and most of the restaurants don't open for dinning till 10pm. It's no wonder they need a rest between 12 and 2pm each day.

Boston

2010-09-06T08:32:00.000+08:00

I've spent the past week in Boston with family recovering from the past three and a half weeks and 6,500 miles of travel through the Midwest. It was great to catch up with Shirley, Sam, Jake and Emma, in fact it was the first time I had met the kids in person and it was great it be able to spend so much time with them . The Blond women is Aude, she's french, enough said.

Austin Texas

2010-08-30T12:53:00.000+08:00

I spent the last two days of my trip though the mid west in Austin Texas. Austin is the live music capital of the US, it's also the home of Stevie Ray Vaughan who died 20 years ago on the 27th August 1990 and the town was in tribute mode when I arrived, which was great as I'm a SRV fan and every second place was playing the blues.

I also got to see Hot Hot Heat and Rooney at Momo's one of Austin best live music venues as well as about 15 other acts around the city both during the day and at night. Austin is unlike any other city in the US, it's very liberal and open and it celebrates it's culture and the fact it's different, in fact their saying is "Keep Austin Weird"

Noble Foundation

2010-08-30T12:28:00.001+08:00

I spent two days at the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma and it was one of the highlights of the trip. There doing an amazing amount of work with some of the best ag research facilities I've ever been in. I had a look over some of their transgenic work including in lucerne and Tall fescue. Josh showed me some forage soy beans that looked great and Dave to kiwi showed me around the green houses which are some of the largest in the country. If bugs aren't your thing, then it would be a good place to avoid as their huge.

Driving

2010-08-30T12:15:00.000+08:00

If there one part of the trip I've enjoyed the most it's the driving. The roads are great, the traffic move fast without ever stopping and the drivers are the most courteous I've ever encounted. Not once did I hear a horn, when you stop at a all ways stop ( which is like a round about, with out the round part) people all gesture at each other to go, the traffic merges without slowing down and the cars are big and fast.

Included in the collection of photos are some of the cars I would like to take home with me and the endless interstates that are so great to travel on. Also and most importantly is being able to turn right on a red light, Brilliant!

Oklahoma Livestock Exchange

2010-08-30T11:56:00.002+08:00

I was traveling through Oklahoma when I saw a sign leading to the Stockyard Livestock Exchange. Firstly it's just outside the city's CBD due to the fact it's been there for more than 100 years and secondly it's a major tourist attraction. There's great places to eat and lots of western wear shops and if that's not enough you can see the cattle being auctioned. The livestock exchange is one of the largest in the country and auctions cattle nearly every day.

No Till in Kansas

2010-08-27T12:23:00.001+08:00

Josh Lloyed and Doug Pallen are from Kansas, are two of the best no till farmers I've met. Their both pushing the limits of the system and in seems to me the harder they push the better the results. They've fired me up to re look at our no till system in both the equipment and techniques we use.

No Coast Derby Girls

2010-08-27T12:03:00.001+08:00

On the Saturday night I decided to get a bit of American culture and go watch the roller derby in Lincoln. It was the Mad Maxines up against the Pikes Peak Roller Dames. Anna Wrexx-it and Flash Gloria assisted by Lt. SlamHer and Princess Lay Ya Flat dominated the game against Count Smacula, Slaughter Than Hell and Fanny Fister.

There was a mix of people from the hard core fans with posters and T shirts through to Families and people like me just curious to have a look. I have to say it was entertaining, they really put their bodies on the line and take each other out and there is allot of skill in the game. Check it out.

Anyone for free fertilizer

2010-08-27T11:51:00.000+08:00

I spent the weekend with a friend of mine Bart Ruth from Rising City, Nebraska. After two and a half weeks and 4,000 miles of traveling through the mid west it was great to spend time with Bart and his family looking around his farm and generally relaxing.

Bart runs a great operation with his son Geof, growing soy bean and corn, no till with most under centre pivot irrigation. But the most interesting part is that a large amount of the water comes from a dairy next door. They need to get rid of the water and it's loaded with nitrogen, phosphors and potassium, a win win for every one. The dairy has about 6000 head and they cut corn silage on Barts place for the feed. A model example of nutrient recycling.

Iowa State Fair

2010-08-21T12:25:00.001+08:00

I went to the Iowa state Fair today and had a great time. There was the usual Giant vegi comp, produce display and the butter sculptures.

There were the livestock displays featuring all sorts of breeds including giant boars, miniature Hereford cattle, giant cattle, giant sheep (230kg) and recent inductees to the klu klux klan of sheep. In case your wondering what the lady is doing with the hose, she blow drying them after their shampoo and grooming.

But it was the food that was the standout at the show. If it can be deep fried or covered in cheese, it's for sale here. For the record I didn't sample any of it, any one of those plates contain enough calories to feed a small African village for a month.

There is a serious side to the show and I'll blog about that later. All in all it was a very good show and the people of Iowa are always so welcoming and friendly.

Bailey Yard

2010-08-20T11:04:00.000+08:00

Union Pacific's Bailey Yard is the largest train yard in the world. 10,000 cars per day are handled 24 hour a day 365 days per year with over 2500 workers. It's situated in North Platte, which is in the centre of the US. It's 8 mile long and covers 2,800 acres. Rail transport in the US caries everything from frozen peas to coal. When traveling through Wyoming, where the coal comes from, the railway runs along the the side of the road. The coal trains are 130 cars long and are about 5 minutes apart from each other both full and empty. In other states cars, ethanol, fuel, corn and every thing else is frighted by rail, but even with this efficient system 5,000 trucks pass North Platte on the I80 every day.

Traveling through Nebraska

2010-08-19T11:56:00.000+08:00

The lack of trees and the wide vistas are the hallmark of the prairies. If all you did was drive down the interstate you would miss the rolling hills and the vast diversity of agriculture.

ARS Akron

2010-08-19T11:43:00.000+08:00

Merle Vigil showed me round the trail plots at Akron, Colorado. They run a 20 year rotation trial displaying no till and conventional systems. The no till and variable rotation systems show the best margins long term but most of the farmers still use the wheat fallow rotation and are now moving to corn as the varieties improve.

DNA storage

2010-08-19T11:14:00.000+08:00

On Monday I visited Phil Purdy at USDA ARS in Fort Collins, Colorado. We talked about new research in sheep AI and their storage of the DNA of all the animal breeds in the US. The DNA is stored in these Liquid N tanks in a room that is water tight with 1m thick walls. Just in case.

Wyoming

2010-08-17T12:10:00.000+08:00

I spent the day traveling around Wyoming with Ken Hamilton, Executive VP of Wyoming Farm Bureau. From snow caped mountains to wide open space with no trees and vistas spreading for hundred of kilometres. There are 500,000 people and 4 million cattle. The main enterprise is breeding stock for the feeder markets going in to Nebraska. Like so many farming areas profitability and farm succession are the main problem areas, but like WA, Wyoming is rich in resources so the economy is booming.

Tourist today

2010-08-16T10:54:00.000+08:00

Ed and I joined the tourists today and traveled to Mt Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument.

Chad & Amanda's place

2010-08-16T10:44:00.001+08:00

Chad saw no future in farming the way he had in the past, so he went back to school and learnt about short term rotation farming. For those of you familiar with cell grazing it's the same. He uses cover crops to restore problem soils before re pasturing them and only grazing them for one day a year. It's not until you see the pastures of his neighbors that you see the great work he is doing. Chad isn't your average North Dakota farmer, he gave up a career as an engineer to pursue his farming passion, and his doesn't have one regret.

Rocky's Place

2010-08-15T13:50:00.000+08:00

Rocky is a farmer in ND who was struggling to make a living as a farmer using the conventional techniques he had been brought up with. So he switched to no till farming and hasn't looked back. Rocky increased the diversity of crops grown from a wheat fallow rotation to sunflowers, corn and canola. On the soils that had become too degraded to farm he is using cover crops to try and fix the land and improve the soil.

ARS Mandan

2010-08-15T13:22:00.000+08:00

Both Ed and Myself spent two days with the ARS research centre in Mandan North Dakota. We looked at integrating livestock and cropping systems with corn planted in skip rows with the trash kept in the narrow rows to feed the stock during winter. (it's -20c at times with 2-3 ft of snow) This is then rotated with oats with clover under sown and sorghum wind rowed. All these systems are used for winter grazing. We also toured some farms which I will write about next.

Ed's on TV

2010-08-13T13:10:00.000+08:00

When at the USDA, ARS centre in Mandan in North Dakota we got interviewed by NBC North Dakota News. Ed was a natural and was asked weather his does this often, at which he replied yes all the time, always happy to speak in front of large crowds! See for yourself.

Leaving the land of corn

2010-08-13T12:56:00.000+08:00

I've had a great time at Tim's (on right)and we spent the last morning looking around his corn with Jackson, Tim's business partner. It looks like the crops are some of the best for years and as you can see both boys are petty happy.

Sacramento Welcome

2010-08-11T14:36:00.001+08:00

Monday I met up with the farm Bureau in Sacramento, California. We just sat down to order and began to talk about how the general pubic had disengaged from farming and knew little about how their food was produced when, a group of young people started dancing in front of the restaurant. As we latter found out their from the URJ, the acronym on the front of a pamphlet they handed out. Who is the URJ? after googling them, they are the Union Reform Judaism. What were they doing? they were protesting about food justice. According to the pamphlet their for GM but against it, their for eating meat but not is it's done commercially, they want all their food produced locally and think chickens should get more sunlight. My lunch companions took all the credit for the live example of how detached we are from our food production and we then ordered lots of meat.

The lunch was great, thanks to the Jammie and the farm Bureau for putting on such a great show.

Corn as far as you can see

2010-08-07T20:35:00.000+08:00

Iowa is like an energy factory. Corn for ethanol production and wind for power, two products they have plenty of. With in the area of Tims farm there are 240 wind turbines.

So what do you use all that corn for

2010-08-07T20:31:00.001+08:00

30% of the corn grown in Iowa is used for ethanol production and the other 70% go's into livestock production in either dairy, hogs or feedlots. Today I visited an ethanol plant that uses Tims Corn and a 1000 head Dairy that uses three of corns products. Green chop, corn grain and brewers grain from the ethanol plant.

The ethanol plant was great. Very little of the energy from the process is wasted and Two products are produced, ethanol which is carted by rail to the east coast and brewers grain which is used both locally and exported to China as feed stuff. It's important to the ethanol plants that the brewers grain goes back into the food chain as it negate much of the image that the corn is being taken away from the food production.

Ames, Iowa State University

2010-08-06T20:39:00.000+08:00

Met with Mat Lieberman today at the Iowa State University. Matts research is looking at crop rotations with corn, soy, alfalfa and Oats with red clover under sown. Most of the rotations in Iowa consist of Corn, Corn, Corn and Corn. There looking at Native pasture as biomass for conversion to fuel and to stabilize the landscape. 33% of the corn is used for Ethanol production and there are wind turbines every were. There is 33 million aces of production land in Iowa and it's all tile drained and planted to corn, with a soy bean plant every now and then.

Chicago to Ames, Iowa

2010-08-05T11:39:00.001+08:00

I had a great day today driving 600 km from Chicago to Ames in Iowa. My Jeep SUV drives well but like all things petrol choose the juice. I stopped in at John Deere in Moline. I was meant to go for a tour of the Harvester factory this morning, but due to my bags not arriving until 10.30 am, all I could fit in was the pavilion and gift shop. It was corn and soy from the time I left the out skirts of Chicago all the way.

The interstate highway system is great and a fast way to get around. Every second vehicle is a truck and I past the largest truck stop in the world and there would have been 250 trucks parked up at lunch time. The big M is every 25 miles or so along with a number of fuel stations and other eateries.

Day 1 no bag

2010-08-04T11:03:00.004+08:00

No pics today as I've no bag after a long day flying. I got to LA on time and check in to the next flight and then it got canceled, got on a new flight and then it got canceled too. After another 3 hours I got a standby flight but when I got to Chicago I had no bag. I'm in the hotel I've washed my cloths in case my bag still hasn't arrived in the morning and I'm going to have my first real sleep in 36 hours.

Good night.

Grazing Canola Update 2

2010-07-30T08:19:00.000+08:00

It's coming back well. It's not to dissimilar to the other canola growing on the farm, but still very different to the ungrazed canola in the foreground. Interestingly to ungrazed canola doesn't have many pods due to all the frosts we've been having.

Evening Camp Fire

2010-07-25T20:19:00.000+08:00

Sunday night and were all exhausted. Saturday building the wall, Sunday seeding everlastings at Koja place in Kojonup.
We lit a fire at the base of the new wall and cooked sausages over the flames. It's a lovely balmy night with a full moon, and a great way to end a busy weekend. I'm looking forward to the working week to start so I can have a rest.

New Rock Wall

2010-07-25T20:04:00.000+08:00

We had 7 Apex member out on Saturday to help build a new stone wall out the front of the house. I removed the old wall to put in the pool and it's taken 6 years to put it back. This wall is 1/10th the size of the rest of the rock walls around the house. It took us one day to complete with a bob cat and a loader. Dad built the original wall by himself (with some slave labour from his kids on the weekends) with no mechanical help, just a ute. I'm impressed.

A big thanks to the Apex boys, a job well done.

Canola

2010-07-25T19:44:00.000+08:00

It's been a great year for Canola so far. This photo was taken a few weeks ago and the canola has since bolted and started to flower. The last application of Urea will go on this week.

Lightning strikes

2010-07-17T22:25:00.000+08:00

Every now and when I travel around the farm checking the stock I'll see something like this. This was a Red gum about 8 Ft around and about 30 ft tall. You can't but marvel at the power of lightning.

Canola Update

2010-07-17T22:12:00.000+08:00

It's coming back! In fact some of the plants are flowering from the base. I'm looking forward to seeing it in a few weeks.

Lambing started

2010-07-03T21:36:00.000+08:00

I love this time of year. Twin lambs always jump the gun and come early. There really is nothing better than seeing lambs standing in a dewy pasture on a cold morning.

Grazing Canola update

2010-07-03T21:27:00.000+08:00

This is what the canola looks like after 10 days of grazing. Ungrazed in the fenced off area.

Happy ewes and lambs. Ill update up as it grows back. I Hope!

Like this grandpa

2010-07-03T21:21:00.000+08:00

My parents came down to the farm last week to help out while Jen was in Canberra at the National Landcare awards. ( we were nominated in the primary producer section, didn't win) It was great for the girls being able to spend the week with their grandparents on the farm and for me to have someone to open the gates. Thanks Mum and Dad.

Crops look good

2010-06-24T18:53:00.000+08:00

Wedgetail wheat has been grazed once and is ready for the twin lambing ewes to lamb in.

Early sown canola is looking good and is due for a selective herbicide and the first nitrogen application.

This is the Preston wheat. It was sown on the 2 May onto sub soil moisture. Preston is a new wheat from the CSIRO's high rainfall wheat breeding program, it's not the best looking wheat (pale green) but it seems to yield well.

Jen seeded this Canola on the 25th march while I was in Brazil on my global focus program. It was meant to be grazed three weeks ago as part of a grain and graze project, but due to animal ethics saying there isn't enough food on offer they wouldn't put the sheep on. As you can see from the picture the canola is flowering and there is more than enough feed. They still wouldn't put the sheep on this week so we've called the trial off and put some sheep in today. we will run the experiment ourselves.

Going home

2010-06-20T17:01:00.000+08:00

I'm at the airport waiting for the flight home. As I reflect on the past two weeks and all the places and things I've seen, it's the people I've met and the friends I've made that will stand out as the highlight of the trip. From the generosity of people welcoming you into their homes and sharing part of their life, to the farmer who is obviously very busy, dropping everything to show you round and then not letting you leave without first feeding you and asking you the stay the night. I'm looking forward to getting home to see the girls and check on the crops and sheep. I hope that I can soon repay the generosity that was shown to me when when all the people I've met come knocking at my door.

Steve Armstrong

2010-06-19T17:48:00.001+08:00

I had a really interesting visit today with Steve Armstrong from Hastings. Steves a tenant farmer who in 1990 got a two generation tenancy, meaning that he can farm the land until he dies and so can any of his children. Steve lives in a home built in the 16th century. Steve is a excellent example of a farmer using all he has available to extract the most out of the land. He has sheep, cattle and arable and plants 10% of the arable land to wildflowers to attract the birds, for this he gets a payment as well as digging a ditch in the paddocks for water to pond so that wading birds can breed, and yes he gets paid. But the one thing I didn't understand until Steve explained it was that once pasture has been down for 5 years you cant return in to arable farming and that a lot of farmers a afraid that if they re pasture even for two years the government will change their mind. My last visit in the UK before I return home and the best so far.

Pro Cam Field Day

2010-06-18T04:52:00.000+08:00

Both Dave and myself are currently staying with Jo Patterson, a UK Nuffield Scholar we met in Washington. Jo works as an agronomist for Pro Cam. Today Jo took us to her field day which was great. The site had Canola, winter and spring wheat and winter and spring barley. We also saw the breeding lines of KWS, all 30,000 of them over a 60 ha site.

2010-06-17T16:52:00.000+08:00

Visited PX farms yesterday to see James Peck a UK Nuffield Scholar and young farmer of the year. James crops 4000 ac's in Cambridge as a contract farmer, which is a bit like share farming but where the land owner pays all the variable cost but then pay a machinery fee to the contract farmer.
Black grass is becoming a problem (see pic) a bit like rye grass in Australia so he was very interested in chaff carts, bailing behind the header and the seed distributor, he's also looking to introduce livestock back into the system to help with the control. He was also ploughing some pasture in preparation for a crop next march. The only thing I could see was the destruction of the soil profile. The costs associated with all the ploughing and working back is a big part of the cost structure over here, so I think if they could move to a simpler system as we have in Australia there margins would start to look allot better.

Day 1 again

2010-06-16T06:40:00.000+08:00

I joined the Australian GFP on there first day in Ireland as they visited the livestock sale yards, feed mill, Keenan factory, machinery dealership and then Killkenny Castle before the hot air balloon ride over Killkenny. I forgot how hard the touring is as a group, so I wish the group all the best for the rest of the tour.

Kev and Bill

2010-06-16T06:31:00.001+08:00

Ive just spent 3 days with fellow 2010 Nuffield scholar Kevin Nolan at his farm in Carlow Ireland. Had a great time and did lots of touring around. Kev runs a great operation with average yields of 12.8 T/ha in his cereals.

We also visited Bill, another scholar who showed us around his dairy. not only does he run a great pasture based dairy operation he also breeds greyhounds. There's 25 acres of pens where the dogs exercise before being sent to be trained.

Naylor's Flowers

2010-06-16T06:20:00.001+08:00

One of the things I never get used to is the age of agriculture in the UK. I visited Matt Naylor today a Nuffield scholar who grows flowers and potatoes on this farm in Linconshire. The flower business was great but the thing that caught my attention was the fact that the area was reclaimed from the sea by the Romans maybe 2000 years ago. We cleared our farm in the 1970’s.

5 in 2

2010-06-13T07:18:00.000+08:00

Visited 5 farms in 2 hours this morning. The visits included sheep, cattle, canola, barley, flowers, machinery. It's like speed dating but with farmers taking about kit.

Cereals

2010-06-13T03:52:00.001+08:00

Attended Cereals in the UK. Great event with Live demos of both spray and tillage equipment, growing wheat and Canola crops for inspection and all the support products. There was no homewares or family section so it was all just business. I got some great ideas and ordered a few new products that I will be happy to show later in the year. Not only did the stands provide breakfast but they also provided lunch with a beer. Great stuff, something our Australian shows should think about.

Bread

2010-06-07T21:34:00.000+08:00

I found this today. I never new we had bakers in the family.

London

2010-06-07T16:59:00.001+08:00

Arrived in London to blue Sky's and sun. Spent the morning walking around before crashing that afternoon as the jet lag set in. Went to the last Powderfinger concert in the UK in Brixton. It was great. I think 80% of the crowd where Aussies.

Covent Flower Market

2010-06-07T16:49:00.000+08:00

5 Am start today with a visit to the Covent Flower Market. The flowers come in either by train or plane from the Aalsmeere flower auctions in Holland. I asked where the Bottlebrush came from and the stall vendor thought they came from Africa via Holland.

A great selection of flowers and all in such perfect condition. I wonder how our everlasting whole go here.

Seeding

2010-06-04T22:49:00.000+08:00

Seeding has been going well since I got home. Not that it wasn't before, see pic below, but we stated seeding into sub soil moisture and we've ended up with some rain (7mm) and the dust stopped.

For some of my overseas friends the difference between seeding and not can be a s little as 3-5mm of rain. The crop of wheat below was sown on 16mm of rain we received on the 25 March. It's had one grazing by sheep and than 25mm has fallen since. All of the crops are up with most of the cereals at the 2-3 leaf stage and the canola at 2 leaf.

So I'm heading overseas today going back to the UK for two weeks. I will be going to Cereals one of the UK largest arable field days then to Ireland and Netherlands to look at the flower industry. Ill keep you posted.

Home

2010-04-11T18:36:00.001+08:00

After six weeks of traveling, 17 flights and six countries, this is what I woke up to this morning. It's great to be home.

Beef

2010-04-11T18:28:00.001+08:00

If there's one thing I've eaten allot of these past weeks in South America, it's beef. So it was great to finally get to see a cattle farm in Uruguay. They rely on the horses and carry 360 at any one time. The photo is of them bringing in the next weeks horses. They rotate the horses weekly with the 12 horsemen picking two horse each for the week. One for the morning and one for the afternoon.

All the cattle work is done on horse back including the yard work. Beautiful horses and similar to the Australian stock horse and very skilled stock men.

BBQ Uruguay Style. Beef and Beer, it doesn't get much better.

Grain Production in Uraguay

2010-04-11T18:04:00.000+08:00

Corn, Soy, Wheat, Barley and Sorghum are grown in Uruguay in year round production. Soy, Corn or Sorghum through the Summer and Wheat or Barley during the winter, providing two crops per year.

With a rain fall of 1400 mm per year and a flat rainfall patten it very different to see crops in such different stages of production. Harvest the soy and plant the wheat the next day.

Irrigation is just getting started to try and even out the seasons. So far it's not been that successfull. In the past four years it's been turned on once due to not needing it due to sufficient rainfall to not being able to turn it on due to not enough rain to fill the dams. Look good but!

Wine

2010-04-05T06:25:00.004+08:00

We had lunch at Bodega Irurtia the largest vineyard in Uruguay. We also had a bit of wine and it was very good. They have 340ha's of grapes under cultivation producing around 2.4 million litres of wine. By the looks of there store room most of in is sold in these flagons which are in most stores you walk into. Cheers

Uraguy

2010-04-04T06:27:00.004+08:00

In his hand is a Mate'. It's a type of tea they drink here. The thermos under his arm fills the Mate' and he drinks the liquor. They walk around with these a bit like having a smoke? Men and women both. I think there's more than tea in there!!!

Soy Beans

2010-04-01T09:02:00.002+08:00

We got our farming fix today. Three headers in the field, talking with farmers about grain, seeding equiptment and crap commodity prices, it was like being at home. Except it was soybeans they were harvesting. This crop was going about 5 T/ha. They have a simple rotation. soy, soy and soy.

Coffee

2010-03-30T11:20:00.003+08:00

I love coffee. So it was great to see where 35% of the worlds coffee is produced. These guys go for the quality as opposed to the quantity market. So they direct market all the produce. One of their customers is the Queen.

They have cuppers. These guys test the coffee before it's harvested and lets the managers know when to pick, they test every load from the field and grade it and they also custom blend for customers. What they do is pick a small sample of berries, dehull, dry(in a very small dryer similar to the large ones) roast, smell, sip and spit out the liquor.(The sound they make is similar to Hannibal Lector). Then they score it. We all had a go at the sipping and I'm sure it will find it's way onto you-tube for your entertainment.

We where then treated to some great coffee. Cheers

Bus From HELL!!!!!

2010-03-30T10:54:00.002+08:00

So far we have gone 1000 km in the bus from hell. It has airbag suspension which doesn't work. which means every pot hole sends the shock waves through the bus. New transport tomorrow along with a new back.

San Paulo

2010-03-28T20:19:00.002+08:00

Here are the stats. 21 mil people living in San Paulo of the 192 mill in Brazil. Brazil is 80% urbanwith 165,000 people with more than $1m in the bank and 50% of the population is middle class.Ther is a big divide between middle class and poverty.

70% of the power is Hydro and most of the cars run on ethonol which is 55% of the price of petroium. It’s ag sector is the second largest in the world and is only 5% of GDP. It has 220m hectares of undeveloped pasture of which 100,000 ha have the potential for intensive Ag. About50, 000 ha is curently intensivly farmed. To get a bank loan you have to pass an enviromental and social audit and the biggest limiting factor is transport. Which is crap, really crap?

However, San Paulo was great. The Brazilian love of life is easy to see. They embrace there artand culture which you can see all over the city in the form of gaffiti. Business see it as a honar to have there walls painted, and most of the art is very clever. But the city also has a dark side, where there is a big devide between rich and poor there is violence. This is evident in the police who wear bullet proof vests and are seen everyware. Like the poverty, you findyourself steppingover homeless people on the streets and you are warned to stay with the crowds at night.

But the people of San Paulo love their city and love the beach. We as Australians seem to fit right in, it's the only country Ive visited so far I feel at home in. Apart from the bullet proof vests!!!

Mexicana Lounge

2010-03-28T07:06:00.003+08:00

Introducing a bit of Aussie culture to the Mexicans. Rowan is our official ambassador. Seen here dressed in his finest sharing a sixpack with Graham.

Pyrimids

2010-03-25T09:50:00.003+08:00

Dave and Roe standing atop of the sun god Pyrimid just out of Mexico City. It's a colosal structure and at 2500 metres above sea level is quite a climb. The pyrimid in the backgroud is the Moon gods. We went there, but had trouble getting through all the hawkers. Anyone want a sungod Tequila bottle?

Wheat

2010-03-24T15:30:00.001+08:00

I’m all inspired now that I have been to CIMMYT. Not a bad wheat crop this one. Should be around 10 T. Too much to talk about in this blog, my head is exploding with numbers and ideas. All I can say is that this is the Mecca to wheat and you should try and make the pilgrimage if you can.

p.s. Do you like the hat?

Salt

2010-03-24T15:28:00.002+08:00

There is a reoccurring theme as we travel through the irrigation areas of both California and Mexico and that is the salt. When quizzed on the subject, and we quizzed everyone, the answer is the same, no problem we will just flush it down with more water. I’m no hydrologist but I’m sure that is not the answer. The white strip in the photos is the salt. No Problemo.

Food in Mexico

2010-03-24T15:26:00.002+08:00

Despite all the warning about the food, it’s very good. Today we had a local delicacy of pork tortillas. Now it’s not the pork that’s special, it’s the way it’s cooked. They get the pork cut it up and place it into a boiling tub of pig fat, when it’s cooked they serve it up. It tastes great and I’m glad I ate it before they showed us the kitchen. Needless to say I won’t be having dinner tonight. I’m showing you the pic of the crew outside by the sign, you’ll feel ill at the kitchen pic.

Travelling in Mexico

2010-03-24T15:23:00.001+08:00

I’m sure there are road rules in Mexico; it’s just that most people just ignore them. This is one of the road side prayer houses scatted along the roads. I’m not a religious man but I was tempted to stop.

CIMMYT

2010-03-23T14:04:00.004+08:00

Ive seen some large trials in my time. Some have been as big as one ha. CIMMYT the world leading wheat breading program has 100ha of 1m x5m trial plots. The variety of wheats under cultivation is hard to comprehend. The total program including agronomic trials is 400ha.

If your growing wheat anywere in the world chances are it came from here. See http://picasaweb.google.com/regertonwarburton/Cimmyt#

Mexico

2010-03-23T13:53:00.003+08:00

Went shopping for the girls today. Do you think they'll like them?

San Francisco

2010-03-21T11:52:00.000+08:00

Yep still alive. That's Alcatraz in the background.

Classic San Fran view.

Nice area down by the pier. Very tourist driven. Off to Mexico tomorrow morning.

Water and Energy

2010-03-19T13:08:00.000+08:00

Today revolved around the two most important topics in CA. Water & Energy. Monterrey have invested heavily in thetreatement plant to turn sewage into portable water. At the moment it is being used to irrigate crops but pressure will mount as water restrictions come into force this summer.

We also visited two guys behind a bio diesel plant. There now seem to be consensus that to have a sustainable source of bio diesel you can't interfere with the food supply. It has to be a by product and America has plenty of that.

More Dairy

2010-03-19T12:54:00.000+08:00

This dairy milks 6000 cows 365 days per year 24 hours per day producing 7 truckloads of milk per day.

There are 2000 dairymen in California with an average size of 600 cows. That makes 1.2 million dairy cows in CA, the largest producing state in the US.

There so good at it they have oversupplied the local market and are now going broke. There cost of production is so high they can't even compete with Aus & NZ

Boswell

2010-03-18T14:21:00.002+08:00

J.G. Boswell Company farms 106,000 ac in the Sacramento Valley. 24,000 ac of processing tomato's yielding about 56 t/ac and about 70,000 ac of Cotton. All fed from the river of water flowing through the farm.

This is the tomato planting machine. They run these 24/7 for three months.

When there picked they are processed in their own factory producing around 590,000 kilograms of tomato paste. Each one of those boxes is 1 tonne of paste. They go on forever. They can last for up to 3 years in these boxes.

I counted 50 harvesters.

Fun in the valley

2010-03-18T14:08:00.001+08:00

Today's first visit was to see the miracle Paloma tree that claims to grow to 60 ft in 3 years and generate enough power to run 1800 homes. Not sure about this one. If it's too good to be true it probably is.

A sheep farm in the valley was not what I expected. They run 4700 ewes, employ 7 full time staff and lamb over a 5 month period. Labour is cheap in CA.

Almonds

2010-03-17T12:29:00.000+08:00

The Sacramento Valley produces 100% of Americas almonds and 80% of the worlds. The picture above is one of the husk mountains from the processing.

There's quite a bit to processing them. Their sorted on colour, size, type and removed if they had a scratch on them.

And then packaged and sent to the world. The scale is mind boggling. In fact the whole day has been doing my head in with the size and scale of food production.

Fresno

2010-03-17T12:14:00.000+08:00

The big blue part of this map is the Sacramento Valley in California. It's bloody big and it produces more than half of the nations food. One of the presenters today indicated that the nation was so reliant on the valley that it only has about 7 days of food in the system to feed the nation at any one time.

The valley is very flat. It has 100 feet of top soil and an unmetered supply of bore water. Even in the town there is no metering of the water. Thus the lawns and gardens look great.

But water is their number one issue. They have had some dry years and the governments and environmental groups are coming down hard. Which will win, food or the environment.

This one is for the wheat growers. They grow a bit of wheat. It averages around 10t/ha. If you look closely you can see the start of the centre pivot in the distance.

My kind of town

2010-03-16T05:53:00.004+08:00

Chicago board of trade today. We got access to the trading floor and where there at opening. It was great, lots of activity at the start and then not much. Just like you see in the movies with lots of hand waving and calling out, great to see in the day of electronic commerce The city was also good and I would have liked to have seen more. Off to Fresno tonight.

I've been Busy

2010-03-15T09:30:00.001+08:00

I havn't blogged or even communicated much over the past few days which is due in part to the hectic schedule we have had imposed, 7am starts and 10.30pm finishes don't help but most of the blame should be put at the Irish lads feet. We have had a great time and formed some lifelong friendships and I look forward to visiting them all in the future.

Gettysburg battle ground while not a moving experience for me it must be for the Americans. 160 monuments and a huge visitor centre. 1.4 million visitors per year. It was great to visit and gave me an incite into the American civil war I had not had before.We also as part of the tour had a leadership forum from which we all came away with the words ADAPT, INNOVATE, OVERCOME

Intensive dairying is some thing I have only seen in the UK and the US. This is the most intensive I have seen yet. Cattle fed indoors 365 days of the year and automated milking. I not shore how I feel about this. I found it very confronting.

Mushrooms. I love them. But after visiting the farms I know I'm not going to grow them. The composting stinks and picking them is done by hand. No thanks.

Washington

2010-03-09T13:24:00.001+08:00

The Lincoln memorial was much bigger that I had imagined through the images I had seen on TV and movies. In fact I really had had no idea of the size and scale of the monuments in Washington. As you travel down Pennsylvania avenue from capitol hill to the white house you can’t help but feel the sense of power and wealth they are trying to convey.

The war memorials where also vast in both size and number. The Vietnam memorial was moving as it was just names and showed no reference to the glory of war. My favourite was the Korean memorial. On a foggy morning or in the snow the positions of their bodies and the expressions on their faces convey all the horrors of war.

The Irish Nuffield Scholars have formed a boy band. They have been practising at the local karaoke bar and will soon be ready to hit the road. From left to right Bill, Kevin, Julian, Bill, Kevin.

Day 7

2010-03-06T17:36:00.000+08:00

HCC sponsored a dinner for us on the last night. The hospitality of the Welsh was fantastic and we all really appreciate the time a effort they put it to give us a look at welsh agriculture.

These are mules, a one of 44 breeds of sheep in Wales. These sheep live in the hills and don't come in for lambing. Tough sheep because it's bloody cold.

Europe's largest sale yards. Holds 35000 sheep and 1000 cattle under cover.

Mardy and Dave on the way back to London.

Day 6 - I think?

2010-03-06T17:18:00.000+08:00

Alistair on the phone (skype), his is the usual morning activity as we all catch up with home.

Viited Tesco, the UK's largest grocery chain. It was good to see the business from the inside. There attempts to use as much local produce as possible was good to see, something our local supermarkets should look to more.

Marty is from Innisfail in N Queensland this was his first snow experience.

British Wools. This is how they pack the wool in these slips. About 100kg per slip of rolled wool. They get paid on wieght and as this slip was unloaded a piece of wood came out. There happy with the wool price if it covers the cost of shearing.

Day 5 Aberystwyth

2010-03-04T04:16:00.000+08:00

Visit to Innovis today to look at there breeding program. They run a composit breeding program similar the breeders best in WA. Good looking lambs but even better country side.

Also visited Aberystwyth Uni and looked around there research facilities. No expense spared on the livestock facilities and the indoor lambing pens. Off to Newtown tomorrow.

2010-03-03T15:46:00.000+08:00

Busy day today. Pencevn Feeds was great as we got to see the more entrapenerial side of CAP payments. These two brothers milked it for all it's worth. You can get pay to do almost anything. You get 100% tax deduction on machinery puchases, 100% grants for fencing, if your smart about it you don't need to farm you just use it as a tax haven.

The country side is stunning, so neat, one of the conditions of the CAP Payments.

This is where we are staying today

Lambing sheep inside must be one of the most labour intensive things you can do in agriculture. They assist lambing 24 hours a day for 3 weeks. Remenmber it,s only about 4 deg C.

2010-03-02T03:42:00.001+08:00

This is the entrance to the millennium Centre in Cardiff. A truly impressive building housing the Welsh arts.

The inscription on the outside entrance can be seen on the inside. The Welsh translation is "Creating truth like glass from inspiration's furnace" and the English saying In these stones horizons sing"

We also met members of the Welsh Farmer Union and Mick Bates a member of the Welsh Assembly to talk about agriculture and the CAP payments farmers get.

The Assembly roof looks great. The funnel you can see sits over the chamber and is meant to collect all the hot air to drive a turbine inside to power the place. (well that's my interpretation)

2010-03-01T17:10:00.002+08:00

6am start to the day arriving at Heathrow Driving to Chepstow in Wales for our first visit to an organic dairy farm. Great place and even better after lunch at the local with a few pints. Then it was onto Usk Castle, 900 years old and a change from the usual farming talk. This started again over a cup of tea and the subject was farming and politics. I’m too bloody tired to talk about the conversation and after close to 40 hour of little sleep I’m going to bed.

p.s. I didn’t mention it’s 4.5 degrees

Day 2.5 Flight

2010-03-01T17:07:00.002+08:00

Well it’s not day 2 or day 3 but we’ve been travelling by plane for 24 hours and only lost 12, such is travelling with the sun. I haven’t had much sleep and we are arriving at 6am in London with our first farm visit at 12 noon. Stopped in at the new bannock airport on the way. Very impressive, the second largest airport in the world with 72 flights per hour. Three movies so far. Inglorious Basterds four stars great ending, The informant two and half stars a bit slow and no one is blown up, Law abiding Citizen three stars good thriller but I would have liked to see another ending where the good guy/bad guy gets what he’s after, maybe?

Day Two

2010-02-27T12:11:00.000+08:00

Touring today of the National War memorial. Always a moving experience and really brought to life with the new sound and light show.

We also got to see the post Impressionist exhibition at the National museum. Lot of Van Gough, with Starry night still my fav and even better in the flesh. Of to London tonight

Day One

2010-02-27T11:52:00.001+08:00

After a tough day of briefings about world economic policy and trade negotiations the boys finally relaxed to think about home and all they have left behind.

Four Days to go

2010-02-21T20:15:00.001+08:00

Even Super Heroes and Fairies have wash day. (magical unicorns too)

7 days to go

2010-02-18T19:48:00.001+08:00

This time next week I will be in Canbarra at the start of my six week scholarship. We have a day in Canbarra then off to London. We are spending a week in Wales looking and farms and industry and then off to the US.

I'll try to keep you posted daily, but I'll see how I go. Meanwhile I'm in panic mode. I'm ready to go as far as packing bags etc. But leaving the farm I still have so much to do. I'll see how the next few days pan out.

New swing

2010-02-15T19:50:00.001+08:00

Built a new swing for the girls over the weekend. They helped with the measuring and cutting and of cause the testing. I haven't dug many holes over the past few years since having a good post hole digger and these needed to be dug by hand. Thus I fell short of the expected depth and had some bits sticking up. I've now cut them off. Who would know.

McCarthers Flock

2010-02-14T23:21:00.001+08:00

I went to visit the oldest merino sheep flock in Australia last week at Camden Park in NSW. These are the original sheep imported to Australia 200 years ago. (their descendants really). these sheep have had little or no outside influence over this time and are a living museum to the original merino.

The interesting thing is these merinos are plain bodied, bare breached, don't require mulsing and don't get fly struck or need drenching. Look what had we done over the past 200 years to ruin the perfect animal.