Michigan For A Day - Wed 20 March

One of the things that is becoming apparent on my travels in the Northern Mid West is how willing people are to help and share there business and skills with you. A phone call to Green Meadows Dairy Farm in Elsie MI, and we were welcomed to their business which is milking 3700 cows.



 They are a third generation family business and we met first with Valmer Green, the second generation farmer, then with Don Rogers, who is best described as Operations Manager and was to be our tour guide. Don is a Vietman Vet, trained electrican and able to turn his hand to anything including dabbling in wheat futures !

Valmer Green, Don Rogers and Steve Wilkins

First stop was the parlour which is milking 3700 cows 3 times a day, through a double 30 and a double 20 herringbone parlour.They are running two 12 hour shifts 24 hours a day. Fifty staff are involved in the milking with 87 staff in total.
 Cows are producing 90lbs milk (not solids) per day on average. My math says thats aound 4.5 kgms!
 Milk is cooled and pumped directly into waiting semi trailers for delivery to the processing plant some 100 km away.

Around 600 cows calve per month. Water use is around 1 million litres a day cows are bedded on a mixture of sand and gypsin.
 Effluent from the barns is put through a separator to take the sand out, which is then reused. The effluent is then heated to 35C and put into a biodigestor where it spends 21 days.
 The gas produced fuels a 1400hp Cat engine which is coupled to a genset, putting electricity into the grid at a value of 8 cents/kw. The heat from the engine also warms the effluent going into the digestor. Currently the effluent going into the digester is 2.75 % solids.The ideal is 5%, which means it's very inefficient.
 Ideally something would be added to 'feed' the digester, corn, suger beet corn oil from an ethanol plant, but these have become too expensive to be viable.

Michigan State Govt. Put $2.5m into the set up of the Bio Digester and were to have an ongoing research and support relationship with Green Meadows, however the funding was cut and there is a classroom and resources on site that have not been used.

The digester produces 70000 ton of carbon credits per year, some of which are sold to Disney World in Florida. Once out of the digester, the effluent is put through a press to remove excess water and potassium, before being turned into compost. The water by that stage is ready to be reused in the washdown areas of pumped to ponds for spreading onto the Corn and Alfalfa.

Compost after having the water extracted

The land consists of 7000ac with 3200ac of Alfafa, 3200ac Corn and 500ac and 7 pivot irrigators. Currently they are trialing a screw system to dry the effluent to a stage where it can be used as part of the bedding mix or spread onto crop land. The model is working but the through put is not high enough as yet. It would seem questionable to as to whether the model is currently economic, given that a huge part of the investment was covered by State Govt. None the less Green Meadows Farm are to be congratulated on their forward thinking.
 Thanks to Don Rogers for his time showing us a very sustainable and self sufficient Dairy unit.


So after 24 hours in Michigan its time to say goodbye at least until the summer when I will poke around some more.
We will head south to Indiana, where our next appointment is tomorrow afternoon.

Road Trip

Sunday 17th March, St Patricks day and the Irish team are on top of the world!
 As the scholars begin to disperse, catching shuttles and flights etc, we realise what great friends we have made in the last week.
Social media will now kick in and keep us connected both on our travels over the next 12 months and well on into the future.
Peter Kaylock (Aust), David Cook (Aust) and myself picked up a rental wagon and are off on a tour of the Northern Midwest for a week. With a few contacts and a loose itinerary we headed south (after close to two hours in immigration )

Last View of the Niagara Falls

 Monday we made our way to a contact of Cookie's, by the name of David Brandt.
 Dave has a real good understanding of his soil and how to look after it. He has been practicing no till farming since 1971 and growing cover crops for 5 years. Cover cropping is not a system that I fully understood prior to meeting Dave but 4 hours with him and I'm converted!
It involves planting a crop after the 'cash crop' has been harvested. The idea is to create biomass to then retain on top of the soil to create hummus. These plants will draw up moisture and nutrients from the subsoil. Dave has no need to apply artificial fert if the right species are planted. These include peas,clovers,grasses vetch and brassicas with up to 8 seeds in the mix . Interestingly the Radish when it breaks down gives off sulphur which kills any slugs - brilliant!
For an investment of around $17 per ac he is picking up $200 worth of nutrients from the soil that he couldn't extract otherwise. The soil looks like it has just come out of long term pasture and not 40+ years of cropping.

Dave Brandt with biomass from a cover crop, pea vine and radish bulbs in the background

Healthy soil  with N fixing nodules on the pea roots

Next stop was VanTilburg Farms  in Celina Ohio, a family owned business with three brothers and their parents. The Van Tilburgs have 4500ac of corn and soya beans, an excavation business and a spray contracting business  We were able to spend 4 hours with Luke - one of the brothers and Joe Beiler with the company. The family have invested heavily in machinery and utilise by taking in outside work, the 3 sprayers for example cover around 60000ac a year. The Van Tilburgs are relative newcomers to cover cropping and had been using the system for around five years. One of the problems they faced with the system was a relatively late harvest meant it was difficult to get the cover crop to grow enough biomass to of any sinificant value. To overcome this, the Van Tilburgs tried sowing seed over the cash crop with both an aircraft and a fert spreader, neither of which were very successful because of difficulty getting the seed through the canopy and onto the soil. These issues led them to develop a Miller self propelled sprayer fitted with a seed tank and drop tubes on the 90ft boom and after one season is producing excellent results I am amazed at how all these guys gave so freely with their time as we pounded them with questions and took photos for half a day ! Thank you so much...

Sprayer converted to sow Cover Crops into a standing cash crop of corn or  soya beans

Niagara

Friday Morning and we are back on the bus - two buses actually, and we are heading to Vineland Research and Innovation Centre.

Vineland was created through a gift by Moses F. Rittenhouse in 1906. This has since contributed to the emergence of a competitive tender fruit industry, and more recently, wine and greenhouse industries.

We were given an insight into breeding techniques and the process unfolds well before any  plants come into commercial production, including a lab where taste testing of pip fruit is performed! 
Vineland is a non profit organisation and most of the funding comes from government channels. A common theme with the research being undertaken was around breeding cold climate varieties, in particular we saw a rose breeding program.
  
In the afternoon we hear from Andrew Novakovic, on the US Agricultural Policy and the Current “Farm Bill” Debate.
Farming accounts for 1% of workforce in the US  and less than 1% of GDP.The entire food and fiber system in the US accounts for 17% of workforce and 13% of GDP.
Most of the U.S. is Farm or Forest with about 50% in cropland and pasture with 30% in forest, the remaining being urban.
The farm bill was established in 1933 to help smooth out volatility in prices received by farmers where small variances in yield across the country could result in big variances in the price. This then gave farmers some security in dealing with an issue that was otherwise out of their control.
Initially these issues revolved around the Dustbowl and The Great Depression, but latterly has focused on such things as opportunities around nutrition, trade, conservation and energy.
Much of the Farm Bill is not about agriculture but rather things like Bio Fuels, Nutrition, Land Use, Conservation,Forestry, and Food Security. 
Every five years the Farm Bill is renewed, although it is more about amendments rather than renewal. Without this process, many of the mandates would by default leave producers and consumers vulnerable to an unregulated environment..... sound familiar...
Another aspect of the Farm Bill is to provide crop insurance, where the farmers pay a levy into the program.This year up to $50 Billion will be paid out due to drought. The government knows it cannot continue to fund these initiatives but the farmers have a very strong voice, and so there is much interest around the next round of negotiations.

6

Jay Nutting, an Eisenhower Fellow - which is similar to Nuffield, gave a presentation on The Role Of Lobby and making our industry heard.This starts at a local level and we as Nuffield Scholars can be the 'go to' people who can then try to have influence over our policy makers.
I particularly like one of Jay's slides, it is a quote from  Dwight Eisenhower;
'Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you are a thousand miles from the corn field.'
Something that some of the decision makers could think about a bit more perhaps....

Saturday - Putting It all Together
The last day.
We are split into 6 groups and each asked to consider a particular aspect of the broader topic; Telling The Story Of Agriculture. Our group focused on the role of Nuffield and how it could be involved in telling that story.

With more than a thousand Scholars around the world, it would seem that Nuffield is well placed to tell that story, and I guess that is happening now but we do need to be aware that often we are 'preaching to the choir' as it were. The Global Focus Program which involves New Zealand and Australian Scholars, has an immense network of contacts throughout the world and is well placed to both bring more areas of the world into the Nuffield arena and tell the agricultural story.
I suppose this ties in with what we heard a lot about in the last week, and that is Social Media.It's a very strong tool in our kit and using it correctly, has the ability to spread the agricultural story far and wide. There is less than 2% of of the population directly involved in agriculture. However there is 100% of the population who eat food each day! Too many of those people don't understand agriculture.
Likewise Social Media can also be used as a weapon, and there are many urban based lobby groups who do this very well....  

Team NZ; Sophie Stanley, Natasha King, Lisa Harper, Julian Raine, Tafi Manjala(front), Steve Wilkins
Looking on; Jay Nutting US. and Jodie Redcliffe AUS

The end of the CSC is nearing, but not before a night out at the top of the Skylon Tower, where we are treated to an after dinner speech from Steve Larocque. A Nuffield Scholar in 2008 Steve Lives in Alberta Canada and has a farm as well as a consultancy business covering more than 30000 ac. 
A great presentation, interestingly, one of his slides looked as though it was going to give some new groundbreaking statistics  around yield building a barley crop. It turned out to be a graph plotting the average daily weight gain of the delegates on his Global Focus Program ! It has to be said, the results were exceptional !
Thanks Steve, and thanks everyone for a great week, especially Karen Daynard for putting it together!

This week in Ontario has been all I was expecting and much more. 
Meeting the 2013 Nuffield Scholars, each of them leaders in their own field has been inspirational.
The debate, probing questions and the friendship is stimulating and infectious. I have made 80 plus friends and I know each of us can, and will, call upon each other for advice, opinion or a bed at some stage !

View from the Skylon Tower overlooking Niagara Falls Ontario.

Mid week Nuffield CSC

Wednesday 13th, and the title for this morning is, Speaking Up For Agriculture. To start the day we hear from Kelly Daynard from Farm and Food Care who promote Agriculture within Canada using 'Real Farmers' to tell the story and also to help them get there stories across through media training.
Farm and Food Care is involved in several other iniatives to engage the consumer all of which can be found on the link above.
Which brings us to the next speaker, Bern Tobin, who gave us a session in media training.
'Explain it to me like I am a seven year old' was a quote he used to demonstrate how to get your message across to someone who doesn't have any knowledge your area.
'Know what you want to say, keep your game face on and stick to the subject' - sounds simple, right!
Bern was followed by Andrew Campbell who gave us an insight into social media.
The fastest growing form of media with 1 billion active users on Facebook, with users spending an average of 50 minutes per day . Twitter is also growing at an incredible rate, with users able to connect with thousands of people instantly, practically whenever they like. A powerful tool for promoting our industries but comes with a warning, '
 Comments or opinions made over social media is like toothpaste;
 'Once its out of the tube, it impossible to get back in again.'
 Social media can be a great way to promote industry and your own business and tell the story the way you want it. Many lobby groups and activists are very good at making use of these networks to do just that.
To give an example of just a very different story can be conveyed by changing some of the dynamics but keep the basic facts, take a look at The Three Little Pigs

Next up for the afternoon is George Klosler from Farm Credit Canada speaking about 'Agriculture More Than Ever' which is an industry cause iniative to improve perceptions and create positive dialogue about Canadian agriculture. Together with those involved in agriculture,they shine a spotlight on the facts, stories and people that make the industry special.
There are some really great video clips on their  website showing the wonderful stories of how are food is raised or grown and by whom. Thanks to Farm Credit Canada for sponsoring our shirts for the Nuffield delagates to wear on our travels !

Paul Inderbitzin proudly showing off his shirt on his birthday.

Thursday 14th,
Today we are on the bus by 8am, our final destination will be Niagara Falls.
First stop is Cranston Farms, a family owned and operated dairy and sweetcorn operation.

The herd of 80 cows are housed year round in a barn  and bedded on a mixture of recycled drywall or plasterboard and dung. When the shed is cleaned out, an area near the back wall
of the stalls is left to start the bacterial process of the new bedding as it is introduced.
Cows are fed on a Total Mixed Ration of maize, flaxseed, cotton and soya

Contented Cranston farms Cows

Next we stop in Simca at VG Meats, a family operated business with four brothers involved. No doubt there are some parents to act as referees as well !
VG Meats are a vertically integrated business, growing, processing and marketing Angus cross beef.
The focus is on quality and while not the cheapest, they do strive to be the best. The brothers invest heavily in testing and quality management with an array of systems in place to support this. the retail meat is hung for around 21 days prior to sale and customers can have the meat they have purchased hung in a special display cabinet for up to 90 days.
Wholesale business accounts for around 50% of the sales with the rest retailed through the shop and is complimented with some lamb, pork and poultry.No hormones are used in the production of their meat as they have found it has an effect on flavour.
 

Meat in the hanging cabinet at VG Meats

After lunch at The Jordan House Pub in Jordan, we were treated to a tour of Meglomaniac Wines where we were hosted by Winemaker Sue Ann Staff. The vineyard has spectacular view looking across Lake Ontario,and being situated on the peninsula between lakes Ontario and Erie creates a micro climate to both grow grapes and develop very distinctive flavours.

Pruning at Meglomaniac Wines with Lake Ontario in the background 

We then moved inside which also happened to be underground, a great way to control the temperature for the fermentation process but with the added benefit of minimising  planning issues!
Sue Anne, who also has her own winery, Staff Estate Winery is so passionate and enthusiastic about the wine and what she does and had us mesmerised  with her knowledge. After tasting three wines and discussing the various characteristics of each one, we were putty in her hand!
Thanks Sue Ann for a great afternoon..

Getting the lowdown on wine with Sue Ann Staff

Next stop Niagara Falls....

The Conference Begins

Monday 11 March and we are down to business with an overview of Ontario and Canadian agriculture firstly from Bob Seguin from the George Morris Centre spoke about the need for research and new innovation in Canadian agriculture and the effect the mining and oil industries have on the agricultural labour pool. 

Next up was Mike Toombs from Ontario Ministry of Agriculture explained how the Dairy, Poultry and Egg industries are regulated by a quota system, thereby limiting production to  the demand. There was some debate as to whether a system that effectively limits production was correct path to take. Mike took the view that by intoducing a quota system based on a per animal basis, it encouraged innovation in terms of increasing production per animal. I would argue that at $2500 to buy quota it is virtually impossible to get young people into the industry without a 'leg up.' So its off to the mines for work .......? 

Bill Emmott the Chair of Dairy Farmers of Ontario reiterated those comments and suggested the supply management systems are only in place to put more money into farmers pockets and that the industry needs to be proud that they are profitable. A quote from Bill that sticks in my mind, 'Use the windscreen and rear view mirror based on thier size.'

 Barry Senft CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario spoke about the grain indusry in Ontario and Canada. Wheat Soya Beans and Corn are the main crops grown by around 28000 farmers. Ontario grows approximately 5m ac grain and accounts for 23% of sales. Corn yields average around 10t/ha and is fed into the livestock industry. Canada's production amounts to around 1% of the world corn production. Soya beans yield @3.19t/ha or 2% of the worlds production.Ontario's wheat is grown mainly  in the west and produces 1.5m t, with Canada's total producion being 20m tonne.

 All in all, the theme amongst the speakers on agriculture was for the need to be promoting agriculture and innovation, to help keep food production profitable throughout the value chain and be proud to be profitable. Seems a reasonable mission statement, but I'm sure if it were that easy everyone would be doing it ......! 

I do enjoy the passion shown by agriculture in Canada and it really is infectious and invigorating.

 After dinner we had the pleasure of being entertained by Ken Knox, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture with a moving account of his career and what he would do differently if he was getting a second shot at it.

 Tuesday morning and first up we hear from Dr Gord Surgeoner, beginning with him showing us the Dodge pick up Commercial, So God Made A Farmer on You Tube. Then went on to talk about crop residues and how they fit into manufacturing.
Hamdy Khalil went on to speak about the role of bio plastics in the automotive industry, with several car makers now using components made from crop residue, including seat foam and headrests.

Hensell Grain Co op and Bioplastics were the topic of the afternoon. We climbed on to two buses and traveled out to Hensell,some two hours west of Geulph to have a tour and meet with representatives of the Hensell grain Co op.

 Set up by farmers in 1937 , it has around 4200 shareholders and is still run by a board consisting of farmers only. There has been some diversification of the Co op over the years with chemical and fertiliser sales and application being offered as well as grain storage, handling and marketing.
The largest part of the business is the storage cleaning and packing of up to 100,000 tonnes of GM free and identity preserved Soya Beans. With 83% of Canadian Beans and 95% of US Beans now GM, it is becoming more difficult to source the tonnage that is required.

These two dogs belong to my 11 year old daughter  Molly Wilkins and are following me on my journey and will give updates throughout the year !

Next stop was with Don Nott an innovative farmer who is involved in bio plastics and the plant production associated with that. It started with growing a crop called switchgrass, which is a tall grass that is grown to maturity and then left over winter for the lignin and chlorophyl to break down. This also releases the nutrients back to the soil, as they have no value in terms of the manufacture of custom boards etc.
Several methods have been used to streamline the process since production began. He was originaly making bio plastic pots, pictured below, until the market disappeared and Don was forced to look at alternatives and is now focusing on fibreboard and the like. He currently has a couple more 'commercially sensitive' projects in the pipeline.

To round out the day, we were treated to dinner at Anna Mae's Cafe, which is run by a Mennonite community. With a menu of beef, turkey and a range of fresh vegetables topped off by any kind of pie you can think of, we were very well looked after.

Team Kiwi at Hensell Grain Co op

2013 Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference Canada

Friday 8th March saw the 5 New Zealand Scholars heading off to the week long conference in Guelph just outside Toronto. After a two hour stopover in Vancouver, we were in Toronto late on the same evening. Having started the day at the Beef and Lamb Glammie awards at the Wanaka Show I was ready for some sleep. As a matter of interest, our Athol Valley Meats lamb was placed 1st South Island Retailer at the Glammies !
With the conference starting on the Sunday, we had  Saturday to catch up on sleep and at the suggestion of Blake Vince, a scholar who comes from Ontario, some of the Kiwis and Aussies decided to rent two black Suburban SUV's and take in the sites of Toronto including the CN tower which stands some 1400 ft above the city.

While we did spend a bit longer in traffic than we may have expected, that time was well spent with Blake giving us a great insight into Ontario and with Julian Raine and Stuart Wright in the wagon ,we were involved in some top quality 'information transfer' !

Sophie Stanley, Stuart Wright  and Julian Raines -  A scene from Criminal Minds?

An Ice hockey game between  Guelph Storm and  Saginaw rounded off the day and provided great entertainment for the scholars, most of whom had not been exposed to the game before.

 Four of our Scholars even became involved in the 'on ice entertainment' during the break. This involved  dressing up as a burger bun and having to 'build a burger.

By Sunday all of the 80 or so delegates had assembled and as the conference opened, everyone gave an introduction on thier business, families and themselves, before breaking into teams  and taking part in a scavenger hunt around the Guelph University, enabling  them to get to know one another and  getting a feel for the  University.The evening  everyone was hosted to an evening of Curling and  again proved entertaining and a great way to interact and get to know one another .

Thanks must go to the  team of volunteers from the club who werre there to teach us  in the art of curling and give us some tips into minimising the chance of injury on the ice.It should be noted that the ambulance was only called once !

Reflecting on the UK

Have been back in New Zealand 2  weeks now since having 4 weeks in the UK.
Since my return, many people have asked me the same question; What did you learn ? Seems a simple enough question, but the answer isn't easy to define.
Reading through the biographies and notes from the WCF AABM course ( I"m getting good at acronyms)  I realize we had around 45 speakers over the three weeks, who presented on a variety of subjects.
So my answer is that I have learned plenty, what do you want to know and Ill try to help!

My thoughts since my return to NZ, have been on some of the topics we spent considerable time on for example;
CAP Reform and the uncertainty it brings to the UK farmers. Many of the delegates see the Single Farm Payment as a social payment and feel it should be directed to the areas of society that need it.At around 230 pounds a hectare, it is a huge part of a farms income. it does however distort land values and contract farming agreements.
Within the group it was felt that these payment would or even should be phased out. Capitilising three years of payments was seen as a way of softening the blow and allowing time for adaption.
  Being the only Kiwi on the team, I gave an overview ( on more than one occasion) as to how agriculture in NZ adapted to having SMPs taken away in the '80s. Yes it was tough for a few years and people did walk off the land but I don't think any farmer in New Zealand wants to go back to that system.
I do believe that the Single Farm Payment is making UK agriculture complacent and unmotivated to become more profitable. This view is shared by Paul Adam an Australian colleague on the course who is more than happy to see the support in the UK continue as if it is discontinued, UK agriculture will become more competitive in the market place over time!

That leads me to another point;
Value chains or supply chains were something that came up often.
 There is a trend for the supermarkets to be seen  to be more involved in the production of food, and offer trace ability etc. This adds cost to food production and being told  that having QA systems and the likes give us "market access"simply isn't enough.For it to be a true value chain means that everyone in that chain gets a fair and transparent  share of its value.
One of a Supermarkets biggest fears is empty shelves, now I'm not suggesting that farmers should hold them to ransom, but I do think farmers are at times their own worst enemy because they are individuals by nature.
We need to stick together so as not to get picked off one at a time by the buyers of what we produce.
Interesting to note that a dairy farm we visited in Gloucestershire was supplying milk to a prominent supermarket chain  through a processor, had several compliance hurdles to overcome to the extent that his milk cost 4p/litre more to produce. For his effort, he received and additional 5p/litre for his milk.
Hardly worth the effort when you consider the fact there is no contract as such, so there is potential for him to loose his market at any time !

Current state of play on farm in the UK
I got the chance to stay with a couple of guys from the course during my time in the UK while they were both arable farmers and their problems related more to that industry, the weather was the biggest issue, with double the annual rainfall in the last 12 months,meaning last seasons yields have been knocked around. A trying harvest then led to difficulties establishing crops in the autumn,and getting herbicides on at the appropriate time proved to be near impossible, leaving some crops looking very much the worse for wear coming in to early spring.
Other issues facing them were the continual loss of chemicals to legislation, limiting the ability to deal with pests in a economic way, blackgrass being one of the worst from what I saw. Definitely something we don't want in New Zealand.
Livestock farmers are struggling to be profitable, indoor systems, high cost of feed and the high cost of compliance being major factors.
NZ lamb is perceived as undercutting the market also, and I cant blame UK farmers for thinking that way when you see NZ lamb on the same shelf as UK lamb in the supermarket and UK is 40% more expensive.
I am assured that is to to with specialling, promotions and lost leaders etc. but does not paint a good picture.

Enough of the negative stuff !
Next time I'm back in the UK it will be summer and the outlook will be quite different I'm sure.

As I have said before,  had a great time on the Worshipful Company of Farmers Advanced Agricultural Business Management Course, made a lot of friends and learned a lot - just ask me a question !
Anyone who gets the opportunity to be part of it should grab it with both hands.

Four days till the New Zealand Nuffield Scholars head to Toronto....