Back Home

I have now popped the Nuffield bubble and am back to reality (and my own bed). At this point I need to thank everyone that has made this year possible. I am not going to individually name everyone but thanks in particular to my family, Nuffield Australia, GRDC, and everyone that has hosted me, fed me, given me a bed or beer, or helped organise visits and contacts.

Thanks to all the boys from my GFP. Thanks for the memories and look forward to keeping in touch

The easy bit is done and now I just have the minor issue of finishing off my report and presenting my findings. My travels have given me a renewed drive to strive ahead and continue to improve. I am confident our business is heading in the right direction but one thing for sure is that we need to continue to move with the times and keep on challenging ourselves and what we do.

South Island

New Zealands South Island was the last stop on my trip and it was a great way to end my travels. I had not been to NZ before and cant wait to go back. We managed to experience a quite a few aftershocks from the earthquake, rain, wind, snow, rain, some sun (I think) and a bit more rain.

Lots of deer farming in New Zealand. Although I dont think that the industry is as big as it used tobe

This is the first time I have been in the snow and not been on a mountain. Farmers in Southland have been battling the elements lately, right at the start of lambing and early in the milking

season. Unfortunately lots of dead lambs and pugged up paddocks as everyone battles the cold wet conditions.

This is some new chicory varieties at Agricom in Lincoln. I had not seen the coloured

ones before and I am not convinced we will see paddocks of them in the future either.

I was surprised at the amount of merino wool products available in the shops. I thought NZ was all prime lambs. Not until we had driven inland do you realise the country is well suited to merinos. We stocked up on Icebreaker gear as well.

Bendigo Station. Home of Shrek the sheep. Not a bad photo - sweet as

Christchurch

Renee flew over last weekend which was good as neither of us have ever been to NZ. She is now getting used to the pace of life as a scholar on the move all the time - she thought she was getting a holiday. We got the ferry across to the South Island and spent a night in Christchurch. We experinced our first earthquake/aftershock. I think they are over 600 now. This is some of the damage we saw. Amazing no body was killedWindows boarded up. Glass on the street below everywhere.

Some of the stories you here of new rivers forming, straight roads now have bends, flat paddocks now have humps, where is your property boundary now, Do you still own that tree or is it your neighbours?

North Island NZ

I stayed a week with Kiwi scholar Paul MaGill. Paul manages a sheep/cropping farm near Masterton at the bottom of the North Island. The winter here has been very wet and paddocks are waterlogged, and everyone is behind with fertiliser and chemical applications because they cannot get on paddocks.

The day I arrived all the rivers were full and some flooding occurred. The water disappeared fairly quickly though.

This is one of Pauls wheat crops. The line is the tile drain. Pity the whole lot wasn't that good. It was surprising how well the crops were handling the wet actually.

Paul and his agronomist working a plan of attack.

Next stop - NZ

As I make my way around the country you see a lot of interesting things. Want a good travellers tip - keep the camera close handy. Anyway driving along the famous Route 66 the other day I came across this.

Some dude thought it would be funny 50 years ago to stick 10 cars, I think Cadillacs, half in the ground along the side of the road. Its a popular tourist stop and people add their own bit of artwork to the cars as they please with the spray cans left on the ground.

While I was there a group of Mustangs pulled up to see what their fellow automobile enthusiast had achieved. I noticed a few Aussie flags. Turn out they were on a tour driving the whole length of the country on Route 66. A few were from my local area too - small world hey.

I write this in the LA airport as I prepare to head off to tackle the silver ferns. I have really enjoyed my time in the US and am a bit sad to leave. I say goodbye to the home of cheeseburgers, plastic utensils, big steaks, cheap fuel and everyone in Texas that does not own a pair of shorts. I have been extremely well looked after and everyone has been very obliging, even when I did drive down the wrong side of the road (only once and I blame Tom Tom).

Texas Tech

On Friday my last visit in the US was to Texas Tech University in Lubbock. One of the highlights of the whole trip actually. Basically in a nutshell - Texas uses a huge amount of bore water to produce cotton, corn and sorghum. The corn and sorghum help feed around 40% of the US cattle feedlots which are located here. Thats a lot of cows.

The university are conducting research as to how they can reduce water use yet maintain production. They are comparing a typical system of continuous cotton v's a pasture, sorghum, lucerne rotation all done under sub-surface irrigation. See the lines in the pasture from the drip lines.

Amarillo

On Thursday I attended a field day hosted by the ARS in Bushland, Texas. There was various speakers throughout the day ranging on different things from corn and sorghum varieties to irrigation technology.

This is a sorghum trial looking at conventional v's "stay green" varieties. The stuff on the right as the name suggests stays green after harvesting the grain. Obviously a good thing for livestock.
This is sorghum juice. We saw three plants rolled/crushed to produce about 300ml of this liquid. Could be used for a number of things but ethanol production is were most of the research is heading.

El Reno

On Wednesday I headed to the ARS at El Reno to have a look at some of the research they are doing on integrated farming systems. So far out of all the places I have visited, this climate in Texas/Oklahoma is as close to home as I have come.

Oklahoma grazes a lot of their wheat to background cattle before going into the feedlot. They still have gaps in their feed production and are looking for alternative forages to fill the holes. Currently they are doing some work with forage sorghum, showing some good potential. One thing I could not get my head around though was they claim to be limited for moisture on a 30-40 inch rainfall?

Noble Foundation

I spent Monday and Tuesday at the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma. As far as research goes I have never seen anything like this in the world. Basically they service farmers in a 100 mile radius, supporting them in everything from production to economics, all for free. A wealthy oil baron, Mr Noble could notice the land degrading over time as he flew to his various oil fields in Oklahoma. so he started a trust, that virtually started out as soil testing. They now consult on most aspects of agriculture, are plant breeders and are at the cutting edge of research and extension. Most of this is backed by a share fund worth over $1 billion, depending on the day of the week. Their hospitality was amazing. I recommend a visit if you get the chance.

They have a large forage program at Noble. This is some forage soya beans, something that I will be looking further into.

Minnesota State Fair

On Saturday I had the privlidge of attending the Minnesota State Fair. The State Fair is the equivalent to our Melbourne Show or Royal Sydney Easter Show. Not a lot of agriculture there but I was encouraged to see how many people were in jammed into the various animal pavilions. They had pigs, sheep, cattle, horses and chickens. Live births of lambs and piglets were extremely popular amongst the crowds.

Not sure how they calculate these sort of numbers but it is probably somewhere in the ballpark. At least they are creating some sort of awareness to the general public. Throughout my travels all over the world I have seen the need to bridge the gap from people in the city to us farmers the worlds population food and beverage providers.

This one I am not so sure about? The beef figure I think could be higher. Might as well take lamb off the list, it is just not part of the diet here. Poultry and Pork -probably ok. Same with fish. The fruit and vegetables not so sure. Of the veges, if you could further break this down - spuds, corn

and beans would be a huge %. Lettuce would also be a huge amount. Salad over here consists primarily of lettuce with a small cherry tomato if you are lucky and cabbage - nice.

It was worth going just for the food. If you can deep fry it, cover it with cheese or put it on a stick then you will find it here. People LINING UP at the beer tent at 9am also made me chuckle.

Funnily this stand was pretty popular amongst the various food samplers. Some of them looked like they had a fair amount of food sampling experience too. I gave it a wide berth though.

This dude must share my thoughts on the whole thing.

I did try one of these though - not bad either!

Back to Iowa

I dropped Alastair off in Omaha on Thursday and headed back to Iowa. I went to Iowa State University to catch up on some of the research they are doing there on integrated farming systems. 25 000 students had justed started back after the summer break. The place was buzzing. A little bit different to my uni days at Dookie Ag College.

I was also lucky enough to get a personal tour of an ethanol plant. After looking at corn for the last week I thought that I had better go see what it is all used for. I just drove in and asked if

someone could show me around. Thinking I already knew the answer, surprisingly they said yes. So I spent the next hour on my own guided tour through the plant. This was a plant a group of farmers built as a co-operative. The furtherest supplier is only 30 miles away. Some of the farmers also buy back the by-products such as DDGs - dried distillers grain and corn syrup for their feedlot rations. One thing to remember - 1t of corn produces 33% ethanol, 33% DDGs and 33% carbon dioxide. The CO2 can also be sold to companies like Coke-a Cola for use in the food chain

As I drove back towards Minnesota I spotted this machine. 'Curiosity killed the cat' they say so I went and had a chat to them. Turns out this was a proto-type attachment to collect corn stovers after harvesting for energy production or whatever else you want to use them for. Good idea I reckon. I got to see it working (@40% moisture) and it did a good job.

The farmer was one of the most interesting blokes I have met on my travels. Turns out he was also part of the brains that started the enthanol plant I had justed visited. Bill Couser, Couser Cattle Company have a 4000 head feedlot, grow seed corn and soya beans as well as commercial crops. They also have the contract to harvest all the seed crops for either Pioneer or Monsanto (I can't remember I was that overwhelmed). And they obviously do some testing for John Deere as well. A very impressive business that I would love to one day go back and spend some more time with.

Rising City

We visited Bart Ruth on Wednesday afternoon to look at farming in his local area. We had met Bart earlier in the year in Washington at the Contemporary Scholars Conference. Bart grows corn and soya beans, a lot which is irrigated with effluent from a local dairy.

The dairy is about 5000 cows in two locations, all barn style, milked 3 times a day, 24 hours a day job. A few people, especially some of the locals, are skeptical of these types of systems however they do have their benefits. They create employment and wealth in local communities. It provides opportunities for local farmers to diversify into growing feed and fodder - lots of mouths to feed remember. Opportunities for relationships such as the deal Bart has with regard to effluent management also exist. Part of me does feel cows should be outdoors, however this is a controlled environment and I can see some benefits to it.

They had just started chopping maize silage for the dairy. The dairy employees 6 different teams of contractors from as far away as Montana and Kansas and some local crews as well. Once again, job creation.

CNH

On Wednesday morning we visited the Case/New Holland header manufacturing plant in Grand Island. They make 23 headers a day or about 5000 a year. 85% of which are Case, as NH has other factories in Belgium and Poland.

They also make 400 bale wagons a year - amazing I didn't think they still made these things. Who buys them and how the hell do they afford them? I don't think they have changed the cabs on them since the 70s either.

Windrowers and sickle bar fronts are also produced here. They were great hosts, giving the two of us a personal tour. We were encouraged to talk to the employees and got to do the final

test on one of the machines. Not many of these joints let you take photos either.

We drove around the yard to see the finished product. I reckon that there would have been over 200 red ones and 6 New Hollands (I think that they had sold them all!). Do you think they would notice if one went missing? Lets call it product testing maybe?

Nebraska

On our way back down to Nebraska we visited another farm that was into growing cover crops using no-till systems. Brothers Marlyn and Patrick Richter run a very diverse business of dairy, feedlot, cows and calves, agistment, some pigs, cropping and contracting. Now they grow cover crops whenever they can with up to 11 species in a mix. They are measuring production, soil health, moisture use and overall economic benefit of the system, which answered a lot of questions for me. Lots of people are advocating it be these guys were the first to put some numbers to it.

See the compaction layer in the soil and that is still after 8 years of no-till.

On our way we spotted this lonely bloke on the side of the road, so we picked him up. Turns out he was an organic farmer from Germany that milked 80 cows and grew organic crops. He was also able to give us a run down on using cover crops in their system. What are the chances? You spend 3 days talking about cover crops, pick up a bloke off the side of the road and

1. He is a farmer.
2. He grows cover crops.

Dont know what else he was into but when he threw his bag in the back I thought the tyres were going to pop. Talk about heavy.

We also saw some different crops apart from corn and soya beans. Sunflowers were sighted occasionally along with the odd crop of wheat.

The Dakotas

Alastair and I have had a big week on the road. Starting in Minnesota, we made our way to Sth Dakota, then up to Nth Dakota, then back down to Nebraska. Now I am back in Iowa. Although we have had some long days, we have seen some great countryside, met lots of interesting people and learnt a thing or two as well. Here is a quick overview of the week.

This is the Corn Palace. Every year they redecorate the front of it with a new design made out of corn cobs cut in half and nailed to the wall. At first I was a bit disappointed but by the end I did

appreciate it. I though I was going to a palace made of corn, not decorated by it!

We spent Monday morning with Dwayne Beck at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm. Dwayne

gave us an honest overview of agriculture in the area (and lots of other parts of the world too for that matter). Dwaynes a big advocate of no till and rotations, cover crops and using livestock. His aim is to have the farm self sufficient in energy production some time in the near future.

Dwayne organised for us to go up to Bismarck in Nth Dakota were we met up with a group of 'Ranchers' from Montana. We hopped on their bus and went out to Gabe Browns to look at his livestock/cropping operation. Gabe switched to no-till and livestock farming after 4 successive crop failures in the early 90s. Livestock to spread risk and no-till to reduce his input costs. He also started to play with cover crops in an effort to boost soil fertility and reduce nitrogen inputs. Now he uses 90% less fertiliser as a result.

Gabe is in to Holistic management as well. This is an automatic gate opener. Set off by a timer, the gate opens and the cattle move themselves as programmed. This allows for cattle to be shifted up to eight times a day. A good idea I reckon.

The Land of Corn

I arrived in Minneapolis on Friday and met up with Alastair Starritt, another scholar from NSW. We spent the weekend visiting some friends we met earlier in the year in Washington at the Contemporary Scholars Conference. So what did we see - corn, corn, corn and a few soya beans. Not much diversity in the rotations. Lots of ethanol production, piggeries, and a few feedlots. This is Tim Richtger. Tim is a farmer we met earlier in the year. He farms 7000 acres of mostly corn and a few soya beans. Some of his corn goes into his own piggery, and the slurry provides nutrients for his cropping program.

All of Tims land is tile drained. This is the local contractors machine that rips and lays the pipe in one go. $500 US/acre and they can do about 80 acres a day. This year has been particularly wet

and you can see the difference in the crop where the drains are.

We went to the top of Tims grain silos to 'get the lay of the land'. Lots of wind towers in the area. The crops look good and it should be a good harvest.

We also visited Nick and Jessica Ries. Nick and Jess farm with Nicks parents about 40 min from the city of Minneapolis. This location has opened up a number of business opportunities for them. They have a large compost business that mostly is for their own use. They have deal with the local council to take all their green waste. With 3-4 million people down the road this amounts to a fair bit. At present they have approximately 4 years worth in stockpile, slowly composting down. They also have a quarry, grow corn, have excavators with magnets in rubbish tips extracting metal and a feedlot in another location. In one of the best deals I have ever seen they

1. Sell corn stubble to the local feedlot
2. Get paid to take it back.

Now that is a good setup!

The Prairies

I had a busy week travelling around the Prairies mostly in Manitoba but I did mange to sneak into Saskatchewan. The weather has finally turned and it has stopped raining. most of the farmers are happy as they can now get back on with there harvesting. I have visited a number of farms including a piggery, future goat dairy, a bison farm, strawberry and corn farm, grain growers, hay producers and went to a Holistic management field day at a cattle ranch. Busy hey!

After visiting the Brandon Research Institute on Monday, I spent the afternoon with a bus load of Aussies, mostly from WA and SA, on a agricultural tour across US and Canada. It was good to

hear some aussie accents and not have to repeat my name 3 times to everyone. They just don't

seem to get it here.

On Tuesday I went to Moosomin in Saskatchewan to a holistic management field day. I hope not to offend anyone here but these are some of my observations. We drove around, horse and cart style, at a guess around 1000ha. Would be flat out if we saw 300 head of cattle. They graze long mature pastures once a year with the cattle trampling at least half of the production back in the ground. While I agree this feeds the soil microbes, provides ground cover and provides some insulation in the winter, I cannot see how a young person could buy a farm and pay it off under this sort of management system. Maybe I still have a lot to learn, but while the day focussed on environment and social issues, economics was not mentioned once.

This farm was developed into a bison farm after the collapse of the PMU business. PMU was

using pregnant horses (mares) urine and extracting it for use as an estrogen hormone replacement. It seems this was a fairly big industry here.

This is Steve Hicks a scholar from 2000. Steve farms mostly strawberries and sweet corn, with a few onions and tomatoes. He also grows lentils, barley and canola. This is Steve standing in a crop of Buckwheat, like we used to grow at home. Seems that there is still a market for it here. Steve is scaling back his operation to get a better value of life. After being away for the week at his daughters rugby tournament, he spent the whole day showing me around when he could have been harvesting. At lunch time he asks 'Have you got time for a beer?'. Here I am justing casually making my way around the world and a bloke who still has 600 ha of crop to harvest on a sunny day asking me if I have time. Canada has certainly looked after me well!