Oh Canada.....

I am trying to find words that describe our time in Canada....amazing, overwhelming generosity, innovation to the max, hugely refreshing optimism in agriculture....there are just not enough words to describe how fabulous this country and the people is/are...

From the extreme cultural comparison of visiting a Hutterite colony on day 1, where we were so lucky to have Frieda and her girls show us around their colony, the Hutterites were refugees from Europe in the early 1800's and have chosen to keep their lives centered around the bible and the sentence in the bible around being "collective", so they share everything, no TV, no radio, no internet, they tend to only marry within the Hutterites community, they make their own clothes, school until year 9 and then the men tend to the agriculture and the girls/ladies tend to the cooking, cleaning etc...all together, a communal eating kitchen and hall...it was a very intimate look at their lives,
one that they are very proud of their disciplines and they (the colonies that have around 130 people in them) are very large farmers in Canada....it was such a wonderful cultural sharing for me, Jess and Gaby and we totally respect their way of life...they are very committed to it and their beliefs

Jess and Gaby with the Hutterite girls

Me with Frieda the wife and mother of the Hutterite girls

We have looked at some terrific crops, and they tell us over here that Canadian farming is going through a golden era...they have had 7 good years of rainfall and prices....how we would love that consistency in Australia...








Interest rates at 3%, machinery at half the cost that we pay in Australia (I still cant work out why we have to pay so much more in Aust....) and deep, rich organic soils, that holds moisture like nothing else.....in Alberta where we visited agronomist and researchers they talk average canola yields of 3 to 3.5t/ha and wheat yields of 4.5 to 5.0t/ha, and check this out...peas yields of 5t/ha....sigh....dream....and they do this on 200mm of rain (plus snow thaw)

Estimated 5t/ha wheat crop

During our visit we were so looked after by some fabulous researchers and business people whose generosity, and knowledge was just amazing, we looked at innovative agronomic techniques and heard how in 10 short years they have doubled their canola yields, the adoption of GM in Canada and where to next to obtain the next big yield increase, some of their ideas include "virtual" soil testing, disc and liquid application by banding after crop emergence into the soil, livestock marketing using cloud technology and trigger prices/prompts to name a few...

I got to have a look at some new tools that are being developed with ipads and apps/cloud systems in mind...and some existing ones that I hadn't heard off that possibly may have an application in Australia

One thing for sure....Canada is one of the most innovative Agri-centres I have ever been to...they are always searching for the next "big" thing to improve agricultural output...be it cropping or livestock...lets watch this space, and the best thing is they are passionate about agriculture and sharing the knowledge

Steve Larocque - Beyond Agronomy..amazing thinking outside the "square"

It is so interesting that ideas that could change the face of agriculture worldwide are possibly "sitting on the shelf", stalled due to a number of reasons...at the end of the day its all about production, analysis and risk mitigation...and this is what I am looking at with my research and tablet/ipad tools...I have to thank so much Rigas, Daniel, Norm, Steve, Ryan and Greg...you gave so willingly of your time and energy and days out of your busy agenda, and it is so busy at the moment with crop inspections marketing etc.......... we all appreciate it so much...and we love your big trucks!!!

We visited fellow Nuffield scholars and discussed and debated around the camp fire our lives and businesses....all with some good aussie red wine and great Alberta beef, thankyou so much Brenda and Clint for your amazing hospitality.....

And of course the Calgary stampede, the rodeo (those brave men and women...awesome), the chuck wagons and the stampede show....all an amazing experience after a day on the great Alberta plains (fields)...but the majestic Rocky Mountains are hard to beat as an experience of a lifetime.....I think Lake Louise is the most beautiful place I have ever visited (some more pictures scroll below).....now you can see why I loved Canada so much, and I am counting the days until I can return.....

Why would a mother let her son do this??  But I kinda think the cowboys don't ask their moms....

How we love the barrel racing...go girls!!

Sadly I dont think pictures can ever capture how beautiful Lake Louise is....I just could not stop looking at it..hard to leave.....

My gorgeous girls and travel buddies...Jess and Gabby....thanks girls, you are the best.....luv ya lots xx (thanks Jen and Dave for letting me have Gabby for a couple of weeks xx)

HELLO EUROPE...AMSTERDAM, IRELAND AND SWITZERLAND...

In these blogs I try to pick out the highlights of the research and meetings to share with you (sometimes I cant reveal information due to commercial sensitivity etc), and the best couple of photographs I can pull off my camera...hope you enjoy my research and travels.....

In continuing for the search for the ultimate real time farming tool we travelled to Amsterdam and I met with the Vice President of RABO International, Bart IJnterna and his assistant about the role that I has heard that RABO is playing in developing possible programs and tools to assist in efficiencies in agribusiness, with a particular view towards feeding the world and global sustainability.  RABO recently funded the "Global Farmers Master Class...The rise of the
Rural Entrepreneur" where 50 agri-producers from around the world were flown into Amsterdam to attend a week long conference programme built around real life case studies....we discussed about the vision and passion we have about the challenges that a resource hungry world is placing on our limited resources and we shared our information on what tools and programmes are out there....we will stay in contact with each other and keep sharing what we are finding, as the vision of our research is very complimentary...it was great to meet the guys

After a couple of days in Amsterdam we travelled late Friday night to Cork, Ireland where on Monday and Tuesday I would be meeting with Irish researchers and business owners...some of you have seen on facebook this photo of Jess and I and a treasured horse trail ride we did together over the weekend...it was magic...

After a weekend of enjoying the Emerald Isle (albeit a wet and misty Southern Ireland) we made our way to Carlow to meet with researchers and educators at Teagasc-Oak Park.  Teagasc is the Irish cropping research and ag education providers, I must say it was so refreshing to go and experience research that is not under threat of being cut or disbanded, and I had the most fabulous day talking to Tom, Kevin and Co about the tools they have already developed and in place and where they wish to go with it in the future, and I got to share some of the commercial tools that are coming on line for producers that I have been looking at.  Given that I am also an educator as well as an agri-manager I was delighted to hear about their vocational and degree agri-business courses, and they have over 1000 people per year enrol in their agri courses...how agriculture is sought after as a career in Ireland is so refreshing.....

Estimated 10t/ha wheat crop

Interesting comments were made about Eurozone agriculture as a whole over the past 10-20 years have taken their "eye off the ball" with the CAP (Common Agricultural policies) system in place and efficiencies have not been the driver for agribusiness and the Irish researchers now feel the industry as a whole have a lot of catching up to do to compete with global efficiencies...This is why I have had to work hard to find like minded agri-managers/developers of efficiencies tools in Europe, there is not a huge interest in these tools currently in Europe as the incentive to drive efficiencies is not there currently and this is being acknowledged quite widely in Europe now...what the answer is now given the Eurozone issues etc, no one quite knows, however it is acknowledged that to take the CAP away immediately would be a disaster for Agribusinesses and the communities  in Europe, a gentle roll back over say 20 years seems to be the favoured approach....Teagasc are funding a Masters student to do a thesis on why Agri-managers are not using the management tools available so I will keep in touch with him to see what his research determines.....I also got to walk through some research crops that will go at least 10t/ha...amazing, but interestingly enough the net gross margin is only around $260/ha...the input costs, particularly with fungicide is HUGE....

It was busy but very worthwhile few days in Europe and Ireland and I feel at this stage I have connected with the main players in the agri-tech game in this region, with my visit to the UK earlier in the year and this visit I have networked with some great people who have been so welcoming and sharing with their information....off to Canada now, and I have a swag of meetings in Alberta, Canada...Agri-technology seems to be steaming ahead in Canada...I will let you know what I find....

With my trustee role on SAGIT (SA Grain Industry Trust fund) I loved connecting with another research organisation