Nuffield Trip 2010

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2010-09-29T05:17:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-04T22:05:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-26T17:19:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

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

He is a farmer.
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

2010-08-26T15:15:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

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

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

Now that is a good setup!

The Prairies

2010-08-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Brandon

2010-08-14T09:06:00.001-07:00

I am spending the weekend with Ryan Boyd. Ryan and his dad grow crops and breed and trade cattle. When you are driving around the area it is easy to know which paddocks are theirs because they are the only one with fences around them. Ryan felt that they were pouring money into their cropping land and not getting the returns, especially with all the capital tied up in machinery. So they now background around 400 calves a year on lucerne based pastures. As the pastures are rotated back to crops, they are growing much healthy crops that require fewer inputs. The cattle also have access to the stubbles post harvest, this allows more pasture cover going into the winter and then quicker access back to the pastures in the spring. The system was a win-win for both enterprises. I was amazed firstly at the amount and maturity of the pastures the cattle were going into and secondly at the residuals he was leaving post grazing. You could be excused for thinking he was under stocked but it is all part of the holistic management approach and building soil fertility.

Once again a lot of weather damage here. This canola was falling over and will be windrowed, or swathed as they call it here in a week or so.

Portage La Prairie

2010-08-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

I spent the day with Don and Kim Scissons on Thursday. Don together with his brother and son run one of the tidiest farms I have ever seen. One thing people say about Nuffield is that you get to visit and learn from all the top farmers around the world, no matter what their enterprise is. This was no exception. They farm around 1600ha of wheat, canola and beans. They are also partners in two large sow units, 5 finishing sheds and a feed mill. Don said the two things he wanted to do after returning from his Nuffield travels was to integrate livestock into the business and buy more land. Fingers crossed, looks like I could be on the right track!!!

The Scissons are in the fortunate position of changing over ALL their machinery EVERY year. When I first drove in I thought I was in a John Deere dealership. They are just starting harvest and juggling rain/storms nearly every day. We have all heard about how wet it has been over here and flying over the prairies there is a lot of evidence of water logging in crops and they say that there is a huge area in Saskatchewan that didn't get sown at all. Good for our grain prices at home though. Still getting my head around converting bushels/acre to tonnes/ha.

They were harvesting canola the day I visited. Canola yields are generally pretty close to wheat.

Plenty of on farm storage. Don grows a lot of crops for seed, so needs lots of smaller silos for different varieties.

Two more were delivered the day I left.

Captain Compass

2010-08-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

I flew into Winnipeg on Thursday, this time with my luggage, all fired up and keen to get going to my first visit. Little did I realise that if you buy a Tom Tom that says it has maps for UK, Europe (which it did), America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand you have to down load them first. Traps for young players hey. Anyway found myself an internet connection and soon realised that I didn't have a spare 13 hours to wait for a Nth America map to sort it self out. So back to the good old days of a map. The thing is, you don't even really need that. All you need to know is that there is the Trans Canada highway that goes from one side of Canada to the other, then everything else goes either North-South or East-West. So far - so good anyway.

Whistler

2010-08-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

Spent Wednesday in Whistler along with 50 000 other people but it was still amazing to see. Not many integrated livestock and cropping systems here, but they did integrate livestock and recreation pursuits (bears and people). Although unfortunately I never got the chance to have a picnic with Yogi or any of his mates I had a great day out. The place just oozes money, like someone said to me "you are in (British Columbia), - Bring Cash".

Not again.....

2010-08-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

Yes folks, the airport gods have done it to me again. I must admit I was not confident when I checked in this morning in Dublin that my bags would also be making the same journey as me. You now when you get that feeling. Anyway my thoughts were right. When I arrived in Vancouver, I was greeted over the PA system "Could Mister Roowann Paulette please make your way to the British Airways desk". They have assured me that they will be here by the morning but I am not getting my hopes up. Last time I lived out of my backpack for 8 days. So if there is no blogs posted in the near future it will be because my computer is flat with my charger leisurely making its own way around the world. Thats number three for me on my Nuffield journeys. All character building stuff they say.

Thankyou

2010-08-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

I am off to Canada tomorrow for the third part of my Nuffield travels. A few days in Vancouver and then going to Winnipeg which I am looking forward to. Thanks to all those who have hosted me in the UK and Ireland over the last few weeks especially Jo and Luke, James and Fiona, Kev and Una and Bill and Audrey. Your hospitality has been greatly appreciated and hopefully one day I can repay the favour back in oz.

Northern Ireland

2010-08-08T11:11:00.001-07:00

We headed up to Northern Ireland later in the week and visited Hillsborough and Greenmount research farms. At Hillsborough they have just installed a 600 tonne biodigester that runs off dairy effluent.We were also fortunate enough to stay with some previous Nuffield scholars and see their businesses. This is 'ladder farming' on the hill slopes.

This is a pellet mill that uses by-poducts such as straw, turns them into a pellet and uses the pellets for heating. An automatic dispenser ticks over all day feeds the fire. Not a bad system I thought.

Ireland

2010-08-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Have spent the last week with Kiwi scholar Paul MaGill touring Ireland. We headed south first and caught up with 3 of the Irish scholars we met earlier in the year in Washington. Kevin Nolan and the two Bill O'Keefes were able to show us around and teach us a bit of the Irish culture.

The season has been great, lots of grass and crops look good. This is some of Kevs wheat. Yields over 12t/ha are not out of the question.

We also visited Moore Park and Oak Park research centres looking at some of the trials they are conducting. This is a ryegrass trial that was recently harvested for dry matter evaluation.

These are some AI bred heifers. This farmer was using Charolais and Limo genetics and getting fantastic results. These were going for slaughter later in the week. It goes to show that good breeding pays off.

These sheep are part of a grazing trail at Oak Park looking at clover persistence. Not a lot of clover is used in grass mixes here but as nitrogen prices increase and the regulations of the nitrate directive it will have a big role to play.

Essex

2010-07-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I visited a farm in Essex. Stuart and Neil Pulford run a successful cattle and cropping enterprise. After selling their dairy herd four years ago they now finish around 300 calves per year on maize and pasture silage and crimped wheat. All feeds are home grown. They have 160 cows and buy in the remaining calves, usually at 12 weeks old. Their herd includes 30 pedigree Simmentals and the balance are Hereford Simmental cross. They spring calve outside and the cattle are finished around 24mths at 3ookg+ DW. Each week 4-6 bodies are sold locally. Unfortunately they only had three calves left and wined down the cattle job during harvest. In the future they plan to be finishing 12months of the year and possibly go down the path of their own branded product or maybe a farm shop.

These are some of the pedigree Simmentals. Having just taken on the stud, they need to do some fine tuning and tighten up the calving pattern.

These are two young surplus bulls that are going to be sold. The one on the left had quite a good shape about him.

Royalty

2010-07-29T06:10:00.001-07:00

I found this sign when driving around the country side yesterday. They didn't roll out the red carpet for me though, just a few dogs that were happy for a scratch.

Norfolk

2010-07-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent the day in Norfolk looking at sheep, crops, cattle and turkeys. All integrated systems yet all very different business structures.

These cattle are owned by LF Papworth Ltd. Cousins Tim and Kit Papworth have continued to grow their family business since taking over the reins. They now farm sheep, cattle, potatoes, vining and dried peas, dwarf beans, cereals, sugar beet and canola. The majority of the livestock are sold through the families butchery business in 4 locations.
After leaving this farm I was looking forward to christmas. Turkey production is all geared around the christmas market with the largest birds dressing at over 20kg. That is a hell of a big oven needed. I got me thinking as to what is a typical aussie christmas dinner - BBQ, roast lamb, ham, turkey, chicken or seafood. James Grayham grows and mixes his own feed ration consisting of wheat, barley oats and beans. He buys in soy meal and uses straw for bedding.
Have come across a few linseed growers in the last few days. It seems as herbicide resistance is becoming a problem, growers are looking for alternative crops. Black grass is the biggest problem followed by good old ryegrass. I think that there is definitely a need for some more diversity in some of the enterprises. Hay/silage and livestock could all have a fit. Everyone says that there is no market for hay, yet most of the people I have spoken to with stock are saying they will have to buy in fodder for the winter. In this part of the country there is not a huge amount of stock. If producers did operate mixed enterprises, then they would have the option of cutting weedy crops for hay. There is also a lot of horses around that demand high quality fodder. Oaten hay could have a fit to help blackgrass control and keep the horses happy as well.

David and Christine Hill were mixed farmers from Shippden. They grew wheat, barley, grass seed, sugar beet and maize silage. A lot of their crops were grown to bulk up new varieties for seed companies. This is a new barley variety that David claimed as "the most valuable field in the country".

Something Different

2010-07-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Suffolk to have a look at some previous Nuffield scholars businesses. First stop was David Black and Son. James is a 1998 scholar who is managing director of the company. They have a 5000 sow piggery with some indoors and some outdoors. They also grow wheat, canola, barley and sugar beet. The piggery provides a great nutrient source for the cropped area while the crops provide not only grain but also straw for bedding for the pigs. I would also think that in a business like this that there is potential for bioenergy production in the future.

This canola was over my head with pods right down the plant. Most of the crops looked thick and healthy with the 5yr av been over 10t/ha for wheat and 4.5t/ha for canola. Goes to show the

benefits that manure can provide.

My second visit was to Paul Baker, 2006 scholar. Paul is successfully integrating a dairy and cropping business together. Crops grown include wheat, barley, canola, maize and sugar beet. Paul milks 190 cows and supplies liquid milk to a local co-op. All the cereals are harvested for grain, maize for silage, pasture for silage and hay, canola and sugar beet for rotation. Straw is also used for bedding in the barns.

I get the feeling that sugar beet is a risky crop. If it is harvested early before the paddocks get to wet, then it fits the rotation well. However if the harvest is late then a lot of damage can be done to the soil and you are not able to get the next crop in for a while, usually a spring barley.

These collars are something Paul picked up on his Nuffield. They are heat detectors and sense the movement when a cow is restless and throwing her head around. This is then graphed on a computer in the dairy and acted on as required. Since using the collars the herds figures have dramatically improved allowing for much heavier selection. A nice limo bull in the background too.

PX Farms

2010-07-27T01:10:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend with James Peck - a 2010 UK scholar. James contract farms over 1600ha near Cambridge. PX farms also has a large grain storage facility and runs a haulage company as well. The structure of the business means all the enterprises complement each other very well. James is always looking for new ideas and is not afraid to have a go. One thing about Nuffield is that it exposes you to a network of positive, passionate and innovative people all over the world.

This is the main storage shed at PX farms. Works are underway to build another one next to it.

See the chaser bin in the background. Most people here use trailers to move their grain around. James did a harvest in Australia a few years ago and could see the benefits of using a chaser bin. He brought some designs back from Australia and got a local engineering company to build him one. Now the company still continues to build them.

1 week down - Lessons learnt so far

2010-07-23T04:39:00.000-07:00

Have spent the last couple of days looking at farms in the Hertford/Cambridge region. Not a lot of stock around here, mostly 'arable farms' as they call it. Had an interesting visit this morning with Robert Law. Not from a farming background, he started as a apprentice, then manager, then sharefarmer and now owner of a very impressive business. Just goes to show that hard work and dedication can pay off. He now runs 2500 ewes and 1200 ha of cropping growing wheat, peas, sugar beet, oats and barley.

He also grows forage rape seed. Just like growing canola, he windrows and harvests it, then the crop grows back and he has a lush green paddock of forage rape to put his ewes onto for joining. This provides them with a protein flush resulting in more twins and triplets. Rob has a few different markets, including supplying a few of the local butchers with a number of carcasses each week. This is some of his ewes and lambs.

Robs farm was very environmentally friendly. He has planted lots of hedges and birdcover over the years, and fenced of the steep, lighter soils on the hillsides. These areas have been planted to native grasses instead of continuously cropping as they normally were. This is some sugar beet growing with some bird-cover and native wildflowers on the side of the field.

This is a crop I know nothing about. Hemp - not wacky tabacky. Used for clothing and pharmaceuticals I think.

There are a lot of similarities to our production systems at home in oz but some things that have stood out are;

Imagine lambing 2500 ewes, scanned at over 200%, indoors, 24hrs a day for a couple of months.
They get the same amount of rainfall we do yet get twice the yields.
You have to put up with people walking through your paddocks on public walkways whenever they want.

Every possible bit of land is used. I dont think will will ever be growing wheat right in the middle of towns. Literally the middle - a school on one side of the hedge and houses across the road.
If you own a shed, it is worth lots of money. With such a big population in such a small area, lots of farms are able to rent out sheds to other businesses or do them up into office complexes. Very profitable although the rates here are extremely high.

World Shearing Championships

2010-07-21T05:31:00.001-07:00

Spent yesterday at the Welsh Royal Show. Forget the World Cup, they had the world shearing championships on which was a great to see. I was surprised at the number of countries represented. The finals were on today and hopefully the Aussies will bring home the goods.

Who wants a hair cut? Or maybe just a comb? They really do love their sheep over here.

This was something else that was new to me - Painted sheep. Yellow, orange or brown seemed to be the most popular colours. Didn't see any merinos in amongst all the hundreds of other breeds on display.

This is Tony Davis, a UK scholar. He is studying mutton production and marketing.

I love the country side over here. Driving around, everything looks so picture perfect. By the look of Tony's promotional banner, Elan Valley must be an exceptional place.

Back into it

2010-07-19T02:32:00.000-07:00

I am back in the UK for the start of the second part of my Nuffield adventure. Harvest is just about to start in the next couple of days. Crops seem to be hanging on and everyone seems bit anxious. For me things look pretty good but most people feel yeilds will be a bit below average, something we are certainly used to the last few years. I had an interesting experience at Heathrow with the Customs official. I felt like I was on Border Security as he spent an hour going right through everything I had. It was very nerve racking at the time but as they say - All part of the experince.

This wheat is still about 3 weeks from harvest. Will probably yeild 8-9t/ha.

Lukes family run sheep and cattle as well. Not a lot of livestock in this part of Norfolk but these animals looked magnificent.

2010-06-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

The sheep grazing the phalaris pasture had to be supplementary fed. You can see that it is pretty flogged out.

2010-06-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

Grazed canola on the left and wheat on the right. Grazing canola seems to have similar principles to grazing forage rape.

Back to Canberra

2010-06-08T04:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I headed back to Canberra to the CSIRO. I had a very interesting day with reserchers, plant breeders and a local consultant. They are running an extensive trial on grazing canola and comparing it to wheat and pasture. All weight gains, stocking rates, dry matter production and yields are measured. Grazing canola looks like it could hopefully have a fit in our region especially once more varieties become available.

Home

2010-04-10T17:07:00.001-07:00

Arrived home on Friday after a few long days of driving, areoplanes and airports. Good to come home to lots of green grass and fat cows. Renee has done such as good job I will have to go away more often. Now I need to start planning for my individual study program, which at this stage I will head off in July.

Superstars

2010-04-02T07:11:00.001-07:00

When we arrived at one of our visits this week we became a bit suspicious as soon as we pulled up. It didn't take long to realise we were out numbered nearly 2 to 1. Bayer Crop Science, who had coordinated a lot of the visits had organised some PR work and had brought along the TV and newspaper to do some articles. Dave and Steve stood up to the task, although they were pushed in the right direction. The next morning in the lift at the motel this random bloke turns to Steve and says 'You are from Australia aren't you, I just saw you on TV' . Good on You Fellas - hopefully the interpreter got the message right and you did Australia proud. Maybe if I had my Aussie shorts on they would have picked me?

Brazilia

2010-04-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

Brazil are the second largest producer of Soya Beans in the world. It seems to be the preferred crop to grow here as the export market is quite strong compared to corn. In the last 20 years production has tripled and the area sown has only increased by 5%. This is quite impressive and is largely due to new varieties and no till. One farm we visited was cropping 4700 ha. 4000ha was Soya beans and of the 4000ha, 90% was GM. The other was corn and beans.

This photo is at a research station 'Embrapa'. They are running a project that covers exactly my topic. There is quiet a bit of interest here in intergrating livestock and cropping systems. This project has also added forestry into the mix. They are basically doing what we call Alley farming. The trees in the background are 2 years old and will be harvested when they are 5 yr old.

Yesterday was a good day for me. Highly relevant to what we do at home and my study topic as well. This is a crop of Pioneer Hybrid Seed Corn. Similar to our system - 2 male rows and 4 females. Only difference is they have 100ha not 15 like me. Detassling is still done by hand (over 100 people). Opportunities like this are possible when labour is cheap I guess.

The sunsets on Brazil today and we are off to Uraguay for the last leg of our Global Focus Program. Brazil has been fantastic, probably my favourite country so far. Last night we had dinner at the Residence of the Australia Embassy with the First Secretary and the Australia Ambassador Neil Mules. You have to pinch yourself at times like this and just realise how lucky we are to have opportunities such as this through Nuffield.

The 5 C's

2010-03-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

So far Brazil has been all about the 5 things starting with the letter C. Coffee, Corn, Cattle, Chickens and Cane (Sugar). Yesterday we spent the morning at Daterra coffee farm. A large coffee producer with a great business model that really looked after their staff and produce. Today we visited a sugar cane mill and inspected some cane plantings. Imagine sowing and harvesting 14000 acres by hand. Then off to a chicken farm. Reasonably big (killing 200 000 birds a day) making them only the 44th? in size in the country. They use 600t of corn each day and 200t of Soy meal. We are all blown away by the scale of things here. Good to see another country competing on a free market though as we do. No subsidies like US and UK. Hopefully see some Soya beans harvesting tomorrow on our way up to Brazilia.

The Brazilian Bus

2010-03-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

We have travelled over 1000 kms in the last 2 days in this machine. As soon as we got in at the airport we knew we were in for a rough ride. We found it very difficult to translate to the driver who spoke no English that his suspension was stuffed. Upon further investigation we discovered a busted airbag. Then tonight after wondering why we were getting some minor road rage from the other motorists, we realized he had no low beams on the headlights. I think we have seen the last of it tonight and getting a change over tomorrow otherwise we will be off to the chiropractor for 7 back crunches later in the week.

On a positive note we have seen some amazing countryside on our pilgrimage up to Goianna. Lots of crops, cattle and coffee. Will keep u posted

Sao Paulo

2010-03-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

Am currently in Brazil and apparently so is my luggage however I have not seen it for a few days. I have told them to hold it at the airport and will pick it up next week. Language is a bit of a barrier here as my Portuguese is very limited.
This is salted fish. Not that keen but I suppose I will try it. Seems to be popular over here but so is steak. Food is fairly cheap.

We are loving the fruit over here especially after being in the US were it is not part of their diet. Went to the market yesterday and taste tested some exotic fruits I have not had before.

Looks like hard work but this is a common sight

The Domino effect! Sao Paulo has nearly 20 million people. To help with peak hour traffic they restrict you to 4 days a week driving based on your number plate.

Pyramids

2010-03-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Sightseeing this afternoon - Apparently they have pyramids in Mexico. Although I have not been to Egypt they were impressive.

View from the top of the first one we climbed.
We have not done any work or not even anything physical for nearly a month now. We were all puffing by the time we got to the top. (Actually we did go Ten pin bowling yesterday).
Told you helmets were optional!
Team photo at the top. Conquered Mexico - Brazil here we come.

CIMMYT Mexico

2010-03-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Have spent the last few days in Mexico and have quite enjoyed it. Most of our activities have been based around the CIMMYT organistaion (International wheat and corn breeding) in Obregon and Mexico city. The boys that dont grow crops are over it but for the 5 grain growers we have seen and learnt a lot.

CIMMYT have over 200ha of trials. Most of the worlds wheats are bred here and then adapted to other countries.
Transport is casual in Mexico, but you do have to wear a seat belt if you are sitting in the front. Saw lots of funny things and managed to catch this one with the camera. I think motorbike helmets and baby seats are optional too.
Grazing goats in the 'long paddock' beside the road. They have to keep them off the lucerne in the background.

The Rock

2010-03-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

All the other boys took a photo of this, so I did too. Downtown San Fransico. They have Melbourne trams here too.

The Rock - Alcatraz. Did not have time to go out there but it looks impressive from the shore.
They love them that much in the US we cant get away from them.

Last day in California today. Staying in San Fransisco tonight Have actually had our first chance to do some sight seeing this afternoon. Walked down and checked out Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Have had a great week here in California, off to Mexico tomorrow for a couple of days.

Salinas California

2010-03-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Have spent the last couple of days driving around the Fresno and Salinas Valleys in California. Unbelievable scale and diversity. Most farms we have visited are 5000 acres +, all irrigated. But although everything looks great they are not without their issues. Water being No. 1. Other problems such as markets, land prices, average farmers age, all common to us back in oz and right across the world. These pictures are from JG Boswells farm. They farm over 100 000 acres, all irrigated, producing 10% of California's tomatoes and over 50 000 acres of cotton. Also went to a 6000 cow dairy. Like I said - Everything is big in America.

Most people over here say they are 'Green Farmers'. Cant work out if they mean the environment or the colour of their tractors. Good time to buy shares in John Deere.

Central Valley

2010-03-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Have had a day touring around the central valley around Fresno. Massive farms on a huge scale. Hardly a tree or hill to be seen, just acres and acres of crops, lucerne, horticulture and vineyards. It was good to see. In only a 200ml rainfall zone and with pretty much unlimited water and cheap labour it is the perfect place to grow food. Driving around we saw raised beds, centre pivots, almonds, onions, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, water projects, cereal crops, dairy farms, a feed lot and oranges. Pretty much you name it, they grow it.

Fresno California

2010-03-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

Have arrived in Fresno tonight. Good to see some leaves on the trees for a change. Went to the Chicago Board of Trade this morning. Pretty much just a big casino for people that set the world market for wheat, corn, soya beans, livestock and other commodities. Very hectic for the first 5 minutes and then settles down pretty quick. Most trading now done electronically. Have changed time zones and daylight savings a couple of times the last few days but looking forward to seeing all the irrigation this week.

Chicago

2010-03-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

We have arrived in Chicago after finishing up at the contempary scholars conference in Washington. It was a great week and we have all made some excellent contacts as we embark on our own studies throughout the course of the year. Highlight for the week included the visits to an Amish farm (no photos allowed), New Holland and a mushroom farm. We have recruited a couple of extras to the dream team for the week, and head off to California tomorrow. Going to the Chicago Board of Trade in the morning.

The Battlefield

2010-03-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

The scholars conference has left DC and we are currently in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. The states Department of Agriculture has been extremely supportive of us and are fantastic hosts. We had a day on the Gettysburg battlefield (a defining moment in the US civil war) and spoke leadership with President Lincoln.

We went and saw a massive 24oo cow shedded dairy and met one of the worlds most innovative farmers. Many of the issues we have at home are common right around the world eg. land prices, farmers age and opportunities for young people to get into farming are limited

Mr President

2010-03-09T03:06:00.000-08:00

Have spent the last couple of days in Washington DC. All the 54 scholars from around the world (Canada, UK, France, New Zealand) along with a few additions have been breifed on issues such as world trade, feeding the worlds growing population and future farming. Had a tour around Capitol Hill the White house and some of the other monuments around town. Very impressive. One thing about America - Everything is big

Off to Washington

2010-03-06T01:37:00.000-08:00

Heading off Washington this morning after our week in Wales. The week has been great. We have been well looked after, everything has flown smoothly and we haven't has a dust up yet. The hire cars even made it back unscathed. We have seen many aspects of Welsh agriculture - the old and the new, got an overview of the politics and production and saw right down the supply chain.

Going to the ice hockey tonight and looking forward to catching up with all the other scholars

2010-03-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Spent most of the day at a University talking organics, climate change, farm surveys (ABARE equivalent), oat and grass breeders and the Farmers Union (VFF equiv).

Checked out some sheep specially bred for Welsh conditions. A previous Welsh scholar has set up a genetics company and was working with both the hill and lowland farmers basically selling them a package deal.

Aberystywth

2010-03-02T23:28:00.000-08:00

Have spent the night in Aberystywth on the coast of Wales. Yesterday started off with a visit to Dunbia Abbitors - one of the largest sheep processors in Wales. Then visited a boutique lamb producer that supplied the abbitors in a paddock to plate type system.

Last call was a stockfeed manufacturer/lamb feedlot. Two brothers started Pencefn stock feed in Tregon. Very innovative, entreprenuirial and passoniate.

Cardiff

2010-03-01T00:59:00.000-08:00

Arrived at Heathrow at 6:30am yesterday in shorts and a T-Shirt and it was 3⁰C. We rugged up, hired some cars and headed off for Wales. With Dave navigating and me driving we ended up at a 230 cow organic dairy farm in Chepstow. Then visited Esk Castle, which is owned by a 2008 Welsh scholars family. After wearing the same clothes and not showering or being to bed for nearly 48hrs, 8 smelly, tired scholars arrived in Cardiff were we spent the night. Marty (from Innisfail) saw his first frost this morning. It’s St David’s day today. Meetings with National Farmers Union, University of Wales Institute and going to check out Millennium Stadium.

Canberra Cowboys

2010-02-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

Have spent the last couple of days in Canberra. Had a tour and tea at parliment house. Full day at the GRDC for our debreifing. Had speakers from DAFF, EU, Mexican embassy, USDA, GRDC, AWI, RIRDC and ABARE. Lots of information and the relevance will become increasingly important as we make our way around the world.

Spent today at the War Memorial, National Art Gallery to check out Van Goughs work (along with 12000 other people) and the National meusum to brush up on history before we leave.

Fly out to London tonight. In shorts and a Tshirt now but got the beanie and coat on top of the pack.

Its all about to start!

2010-02-23T02:43:00.000-08:00

Currently doing the last minute rush before I head off on Thursday. Got most of the farm stuff covered and just need to tidy up a few travel jobs.
We spend a couple of days in Canberra for our debreifing. Meetings with sponsors and industry representatives to discuss the current and future status of Australian agriculture. Looking forward to catch up with everyone.