Only in Ireland.

Sunday 7th July, 2013
The 4.30 am starts don't get any easier and this one is no exception as we march down the street before 6am to catch a bus to take us to the Beauvais airport.
 The airport was 1.25hrs out from the bus stop so we needed to be there on time.
Destination Dublin, Ireland  via Ryanair.

As l said in my previous blog, stick with a reputable carrier and avoid the hassle of what appear to be cheap deals. 
During our week in Ireland we are hosted by the 2013 Irish Nufield Scholars, and that starts with Karen Brosnan a 2013 who helped get our hire cars to take back to our hotel.
This is not meant to read like a diary but more as a collection of notes and l will try to give some opinions and observations......

A free afternoon in Dublin seems like a great opportunity to take in some of the local culture. A pint of Guinness gives us a chance to gather our thoughts and look at the options. It turns out the Guinness Storehouse is only a 10 minute drive and they do tours on a Sunday.
 Brilliant !
The tour was great with a fully interactive introduction to the brewing process from start to finish including the soil preparation to the marketing of the beer.

Not to mention getting a certificate for pouring the perfect pint.

The photo above is from one of the interpretative boards on the Guinness tour, I keep thinking there is something wrong with the picture.... am I right or wrong ?

The day concluded at Karen’s home for a barbeque dinner with some of her colleagues and friends.

Meetings at farm center Monday 8th July 2013

Irish Co-operative organization society ltd.

Founded in 1893, primary focus is the organization of agricultural and rural co-operatives. Autonomous body.

Has a representative body on EU committees.

Members 150000, employees 15000 in Ireland, turnover 13 billion Euro. 13 member board

Mainly processing co-ops but include forestry, community markets and many more.

The society does arbitration on all co-op levels. 
There is training and Development with the directors including a train the trainer course.

Issues facing Ag co-ops: CAP reform, expansion, new markets, financing milk supply arrangements, managing price volatility, managing weather and disease risk.

Also: Bi lateral trade negotiations, legislative issues including environment, health and safety etc.

Irish Farmers Association

Most of the rationalization for direct payments is to benefit the consumer and deliver low cost food. Maintaining the cultural communities is also touted as a good reason. Ultimately most would be very unprofitable if direct payments are removed.

The Association is confident that the Irish agricultural sector can double its output in 10 years. Provided that they can do it in an environmental and sustainable way.

Food Harvest 2020

Key themes: Smart + Green = Growth

200+ recommendations: customer and customer focus, Industry growth, farm level growth, environmental sustainability, value added food, sector by sector actions.

Growth targets: increase value of primary output by 33%, raise the sectors value added by 40%.

50% increase in milk production, 20% increase in beef value production, increase exports by 42%.

Increases will be basically in current markets that they are servicing now.

Ireland-Need to borrow 1 billion per month in Ireland to pay all wages

Sector has real potential to fuel economic and export growth while embracing the government’s commitment to the development of the smart economy. Next step is the implementation through the co-ops, farmers with more debt.

Irish Beef and Sheep meat industry

Has 90% of the industry in terms of members. Main roles are policy and advocacy, technical agenda, information service. Also have external relations with various organizations. along with a media division.

Beef: 2.3 million cows with 1.5-1.6 m per/28 plants slaughter. 90% export

Sheep: 5.2 million head, 2.4 m head /8 plants for slaughter

Pig: 1.6 m herd.

Beef: Supplier of fresh/chilled beef to UK/EU retail and food service UK 1kg in every 4kg of beef consumer is Irish.

Most sales are to EU markets. Diminishing sales since 2000 from non EU to EU.

Justin McCarthy, Irish Farmers Journal

Operates as a trust status, growing slowly, based on unique content for an average farmer.

Invests in helping report and distribute technical advice for farmers. 70000 copies per week once a week.

Also have a subscription online service. 2.60 Euro per issue at 112 pages.

Heading north to County Cavan we arrive at Carton Bros who operate a chicken processing plant in Shercock and met with Alo Mohan, 2013 Irish scholar.

Alo had arranged a tour of the factory and we learned a bit about the history and specifics of the plant.

The company employs over 650 people and  has the ability to process over 13000 birds an hour.

We then left to visit a broiler farmer and had a good interactive conversation with Alo and IFA county representative and vice president Eddie Downey.

Dinner was in Virginia, Co Cavan before returning back to Dublin.

Alo Mohan describing the finer points of chicken processing to fellow Scholar Antony Vagg, Aust.

Tuesday 9th June

Met up with Mark Rochford at his farm Mountmellick, Co Laois

Family run dairy partnership in the midlands with his father Gerard, uncle Fergal and Cousin Bernard.

He has a grass based spring calving system. 80-90% of the cows diet is grass with approximately 70% grazed grass. Silage fed over the winter for 10-16 weeks weather dependant.
 In 2011 they grew 13 tonnes dry matter of grass and in 2012 they grew 10.5 tonnes dry matter of grass due to poor wet weather.

They have grown from 190 milking cows in 2007 to 445 in 2013.

Farm statistics:

Farm size 235 Ha, including 35 Ha of leased area. A milking platform of 175 Ha with a milk quota of 2.1 million litres.

Stock: 445 milking cows, 176 in calf heifers, 207 heifer calves and 12 Bulls.

Their costs are 18 cents per litre giving a net return on current prices of 16 cents per litre profit.

Next stop is Dairymaster, approximately 2.5 hours’ drive from Mark's farm.
We get a very warm welcome at Dairymaster both in terms of hospitality at the fact that lreland is in the grip s of a heatwave !
Dairymaster is a dairy component supply company who manufactures most commomly used infrastructure required in  dairy sheds from water fittings to turn key  packages.

The Welcome flags are out at Dairymaster

Here we met with the international Business Development manager, Fergus O’Meara, Paul Kelly, Animal Health Monitoring Specialist and Bob Keogh International Sales Executive. 

We had a presentation from  Fergus and then toured the buildings and factory. 
Basically they do all their manufacturing in-house including plastic moulding, metal fabrication (including bolts) and even down to the circuit boards. 
They have a cool team working with 3D computer software with a 3D printer and specialised teams working on software development.
Last stop today was in Tralee to meet at Kerry group head office and speak with Frank Hayes, Corporate Affairs Director. 
Frank told us the Kerry story.

Kerry Group is a 5.8 Billion Euro turnover company which is a world leader in food ingredients and flavors. It began as a dairy co-op in the early 1970s. It has manufacturing facilities in 24 countries and sales offices in 20 other countries.

Thursday 11th July

 Visit and tour of Coolmore Stud Farm near Fethard, Co Tipperary. 
Coolmore Stud is the world’s largest breeding operation of thoroughbred racehorses. 
It is now owned by John Magnier who has built it into a multi-billion euro business. 
In addition to the Irish stud, it has another farm in Kentucky, and one in New South Wales. After the northern hemisphere breeding season, some stallions are moved to Australia and Argentina for their season. 
The farm operations to support this high value business are most impressive.

L - R Jason Walsh and Galileo !

You just never know who you might meet on Nuffield Scholarships !

 Visit Rock of Cashel.
 A spectacular set of buildings set on an outcrop, overlooking the plains of the River Suir. It was once the seat of the overkings of Munster. Its origins as a centre of power go back to the 4th or 5th centuries.
l guess Europe is full of history but there is something about a castle that draws you to it. Really makes you realise what a youthful country New Zealand is ... 

Cooleeney Farm, Moyne, Thurles. 
Visit to farm and farmhouse cheese business near Thurles. 
Cooleeney Farm is owned by the Jim and Breda Maher and their family, who are the 4th generation to run this farm. 
The pedigree Friesian herd produces the milk which is used to make award winning speciality soft mould rind type cheeses.

Visited Julian Hughes (2010 scholar) in Kells near Kilkenny.
Julian spoke on horticulture and his Nuffield experience and what he achieved after Nuffield, and Jim McCarthy (1996 scholar) gave us an account of his experiences in both Ireland and outside the country where he now spends much of his time and effort putting together investment structures in Eastern Europe, North and South America, many being hugely successful and others needing a more time to mature !
Ed O'Donnell, a school friend of Julian was on hand to give us an outline andhistory behind his business.
O'Donnells Crisps was developed when Ed came back to the family farm all fired up with energy after traveling overseas. 
Ed wanted to add value to what was being produced on the farm and looked to their potato enterprise to supply the raw ingredient. The spuds are processed under contract by another processor at this stage but that may well change as the business develops.
The afternoon had a very relaxed atmosphere and we all thoroughly enjoyed meeting with some very inspirational people. 
The day finished with a  barbecue and a great night on the tiles in Kilkenny.

Ed's Crisps

Friday 12th July

This morning was to be a free morning, however Carly, Antony, Cookie and Myself have arranged to meet a sheep farmer about an hour north of Galway, 3 hours from Kilkenny  and an hour from our mid afternoon appointment.
Carly thanks for driving, that must have been a killer !
Farmers in the area have developed the Connemara Hill Lamb 14 years ago to increase returns to the local farmers and to take a high quality product to the consumer.
A great example of what can be done on a community level !

The Connemara Lamb 

Next stop....

 JFC Manufacturing, Tuam.

JFC Manufacturing was set up to supply specialized plastic products to the agricultural industry.
 The Company employs 90 people in Tuam, and another 110 in UK, Holland and Poland, and now sell to a variety of sectors worldwide, including construction, healthcare, recycling, marine and chemical.

Had an address by John Concannon, Owner of JFC,  on his perspective on leadership, its role in implementing change, growing people in his organisation and creating a thriving sustainable business.

Vaggie checking out the comfort on the JFC  plastic cow stall !

Final destination today is Cloonacauneen Castle, Claregalway, Co. Galway, where we,Aust. and NZ Scholars give a briefing ; “Getting a handle on World Agriculture” following 5 weeks travel and briefings in China, USA and Mainland Europe.
the briefing is followed up by a Q and A session

Chair for the Briefing was  Aaron Forde, CEO of Aurivo.

A dinner was then provided for all the guests including former nuffields and their partners

Nuffield update by the CEO of Ireland Nuffield

Guest Speaker was Justin McCarthy, Irish Farmers Journal who we met with earlier in the week in Dublin.

Kate and Carly both headed back to Dublin to catch early flights in the morning to their respective destinations.

We say our goodbyes and reflect on what has been an awesome week in Ireland....

Saturday 12 July the remainder of the group head for Dublin before departing in different directions,some going home,others carrying on with personal studies or simply taking time out.
Its been a great 7 weeks and the people we've met, the things we have seen is something I could not have imagined 8 months ago.

 But most of all its the friendships .....

How do you dispose of a bag in an Airport without attracting attention ????

Why are we early every time our flight is late !

Belgium and Beyond !

Some of these notes may get a bit monotonous and may not reflect what were terrific meetings....

Brussels meetings – 2nd July, 2013

Maeve Whyte, director of British Agriculture Building(BAB)-National Farmers Union 15000 lobbyists in Brussels, 28 member states, 20 languages, 500 million European consumers, UK farming unions here since 1972.

EU had history from the ending of WW2 to prevent another war. Brussels chosen due to location (due to war/conflict history), Also Luxembourg and Strasbourg.
EU motto: unity in diversity
EU anthem: ode to joy.
Number of institutions: EU commission ( each member state has a head of a dept within the commission-everyone agrees that iit is too big but no one is willing to give up a seat, basically if a new member comes in they create a new commission seat). European Parliament, Agricultural council (policy).
Amount of money paid in to the EU is determined on the gdp of the country. The higher your gdp the
More you pay.

Maeve Whyte

Maurice House, Agri counsellor to the US mission to the EU
Came to Europe in 2010. 80% of all subsidies come from Europe and Japan. Started off with a very aggressive talk on how ridiculous European subsidies are.
Basically said that they allowed Europe to maintain subsidies so that they didn’t have wars (maintained a territorial peace). Now it’s gone too far and they are starting to take more interest.
Hiding behind their border protects their market.  A report was done that showed that NZ could send lamb to London with less of a carbon footprint than what could be sent by Wales to London. The report was not published widely in Europe.
EU asked US to do a trade agreement with them to help the struggling EU farmers. It means approx 90 billion to the US.
Talked about precautionary principles as a trade barrier; an example was Australian growers using fire blight to keep NZ apples out of Australia. Also use organic GMO, climate change as reasons to control their economy.
“no room for Gucci agriculture when people are starving ” They need to make sure that they do “responsible agriculture”.
Maurice basically talked about European snobbery. European’s should let the quality of the food dictate price and not use subsidies to artificially keep the price down.

Dave Harrison, regional manager, Europe Beef + Lamb NZ ltd.
Working on promotion within supermarkets to increase sales for their exporters. Aiming for all range of supermarkets, high value and middle range. Hard to assess promotion value due to decreasing production levels. Aiming to see a per kg increase, however haven’t had much luck in the last 12 months. Previous 2 years has been good.
2006, 26 million sheep, this year around 18 million sheep production in NZ.

Volumes still good, just a case of increasing sales revenue. From 1990 to now NZ has 46% less sheep but only produce 7% less meat.
Australia seems to do a good job at promoting the Lamb industry compared to NZ.

They have a view to get to as many markets as possible, got a good government relationship.
Focus is to make sure the guys actually selling the product have a role and not letting them rely on the likes of Dave too much.
The improvement this coming year will be due to drought conditions in the UK, not just because of the NZ product being what it is to extract a premium.

Dave Harrison Beef and Lamb NZ - Europe

Jacob B Hansen, Director General Fertilizers Europe asbl.
They saw the need to work as a European group to be seen better in the light of the end food consumer.
Have a need to develop best practice to be accountable for environmental, occupational, health and safety for workers and consumers.
They have strict rules to prevent collusion between producers of fertilizers. However they collect sales data and crop forecasting data to provide members to help strategically plan for the coming months or year. This is only available for members within the Fertilizer organisation.
Currently working towards a new program called “towards Infinity” where they aim to take responsibility for the whole supply and use chain. As an organisation they are looking at drainage/leakage into water sources, air pollution etc. Called it a Stewardship.
Generally their members are high cost producers, their aim is to ultimately help their members develop in such a way to get market share on a high cost product, and be less affected by a low cost supply market.
Ultimately to enable maximum use of resources to increase sustainability of European agriculture. Ensure the best nutrient use efficiency and to reduce the carbon footprint of food production.
Main competitors are Russia and North Africa, not china. China is too risky and does not have a good environmental image.
Current predictions on supply for Nitrogen, potash, phosphate are at least 300 years away. Current debate is still the wasteful use of global fertilizer that needs to be addressed.

Luc Groot, Head of Brussels office Dutch organisation for Agriculture & Horticulture(LTO Nederland).
EU lobbyist for Dutch farmers. Represents 50000 farmers, 2 million Ha, primary production, 70% of land area is farmed, employment is 224000, Agri business 650000(9%). Gross production value is 23 billion Euro.
Total farmers is 75000, LTO is the largest representative body, similar to the NFU from UK.
LTO represents 55000 entrepreneurs. Goal is to have freedom to farm, reinforce our market share and entrepreneurism.
Current issues in the Netherlands: size of farms, Nature conservation, Antibiotics, Animal welfare(supermarkets wanting to sell “sustainable meat”)

Made the statement that Dutch consumers do not value food due to it being so cheap. People have lost the connection to where food comes from.
Lobby in Brussels is different as it is a long process with more stakeholders, more layers of interest. Team of international affairs: 3 people, 1 trainee. The function is to be eyes and ears, information exchange, coordinate public affairs actions, advise on international affairs(WTO, CAP, competition and EU budget).

30% of subsidies in Holland is coupled to greening(nature strip). LTO is in Brussels due to a movement from the Hague to Brussels plus agriculture.
Crucial for lobby: be on time, procedures, key players.
Priorities for 2013/14:
Common agricultural policy, Animal Health/welfare, European budgets, EIP, Competition policy.

BEVERSE HOEVEKAAS
Milk and cheese farmer
Willy De Ville and Patrick. Wily De Ville working in dairy industry for 40 years.
Some of his milk and yogurt is being used now on plane flights. 50% of the regions population has a job in agriculture. Currently 50 farms, only 7 active in dairy. Need at least 2000 lts to get it picked up by big dairy co-op.
Generally people leaving the industry due to complicated and expensive work needed.
Currently milking 150 cows, producing around 10000 litres per cow per year. Using robotic milking machine.

Most farmers farm very late in their life and pass it down to grandson. Patrick studied agriculture at school to be able to take over the farm. His study helped them implement new machines and technology, including cow houses to make the cows more comfortable.

Using a lot of straw to help the calves and older cows.
Part of Patricks’ and Willy’s study in cheese making included theory and practical. Brought a 300 lt cheese vat and started making cheese, had such good reviews that they continued. Initially made it only once a week. Also helped teach people to make cheese even hosting exchange cheese makers, this was part of Willy’s job for industry/government. 

Now they do 900 lts worth of milk per week and make herb cheese as well as normal cheeses. By going into cheese helped double milk price. However they now have to have more people on wages. Current wage rate is €35/ hr for general work.
They make good money with cheese because it is a niche product that the big companies don’t make. Current prod is 500 cheeses per hour. Supermarkets make 100% profit after buying it from the farmer. This farmer sells it himself and keeps that margin.

Current issue is health problems due to lysteria, so they have to be very careful in making the cheese.
Milking machines automatically lets the cow into the machine, milk it and works out how much it will get with electronic sensors. Will even help regulate a cows feed.
Machine cost €200000, called DeLaval. Now they have an automatic milker they have more time to make cheese. Saved 3 hrs. Every morning by not having to manually milk. Each machine can theoretically milk 75 cows, so they have 2. Currently milk 24 hours a day. Basically one cow goes in, gets measured, milked and fed. When that process is finished the machine automatically cleans itself, gates are opened, one cow out and another moves in.

Visited the memorials for the fallen soldiers in WW2 whilst getting an outline of the  history of the area from  Mr Allan Forbes, our tour guide for the next couple of days.

. Later we went to the Last post ceremony at the Menin Gate, also getting some of our group to lay a wreath in token of our respect for the soldiers. We had New Zealand, Australia, France and UK represented.

New Zealand Memorial at Belgian Cemetery 

A sight all too familiar in Belgium and Northern Fance.

Laying a wreath of flowers during the last post at Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium was Carly Buttrose of Australia, Steve Wilkins of New Zealand and Thibaud Brocard of France.

A nice crop of six row barley to lighten the mood.

The French Connection.

July 4th 2013
After departing Leper (Ypres) and headed for Champagne region of France, our very knowledgeable host and historian, Alan Forbes give us and in depth account of some pivotal World War 1 battle sites and cemeteries.

These include; Fromelle, to view the new memorial to the uncovered graves of 200 Australian/British soldiers who died in July 1916 at the battle of Fromelle.

 In addition we stopped at Villers Bretonneux to see the grave site of the Unknown Soldier that was removed and placed in the War memorial in Canberra.
Other places included Messene Ridge, Hill 60, Polygon Wood, Tyne Cot and Villers Bretonneux.





 Alan has a very passionate and gave detailed accounts of key battles of 1917 from an ANZAC and allied perspective.He hosts any tours through Belgium and France and gives real meaning to the sights we saw and the places we stopped through northern France.

Barley in Northern France

As we make our way to Champagne, one cant help but notice the vast areas of cereal crops.
It kind of reminds me of home but also reminds me of my Nuffield study- The synergies between Arable and Dairy. Plenty of work to do in that space !





Travelling on the motorways in France often means being on a toll road.
Usually this is a relatively inexpensive exercise with either a flat rate of a couple of Euros or a ticket system and payment based on distance traveled. 
Seems straight forward enough, and it is- until you loose the ticket during the journey!
The driver and navigator, can not be named due to a confidentiality clause - or 'What goes on tour stays on tour'. However entire van was all but turned upside down in the search for the elusive ticket.
 Of course the toll booth was unmanned, so ' The Driver' is frantically pushing the help button at the toll gate.
 As a security van pulls up behind us, it seems our problems are over.
 Unfortunately the two security guys are not interested in helping us, they just want to get passed !
Time to wake up Allan our historian, who by pushing the help button and speaking French at the same time is able to understand that we can pay the toll with our credit card and it will cost 36 Euros as apposed to the normal 2.80 !

Anyone seen the Toll Gate Ticket ?

One of the highlights of France was a visit to Thibaud Brocard a fellow Nuffield Scholar on thier Farmily Vineyard near Celles-sur-Ource.

Thibaud gave a tour of his farm with his father Pierre.

The vineyard is made up of 20 ac.and some vines are also rented.

Since the 1930's the area of land devoted to grapes in the Champagne region has been restricted to allow very limited increase in area so as to restrict production and keep the integrity  of the Champagne brand intact - very clever !

This means the land in grapes  has a value of some 1.2 m Euros per ha. It also explains the economics of growing barley adjacent to the grapes. That land is worth a mere 15000 Euros per ha.

  A tour of the winery revealed many traditional methods being used to produce their Champagne including a Shiner Vertical press used to separate the juices from the skins not to mention the mode of transport for our tour..  

Vineyard Truck  - 1940 GMC

The scholars are outstanding in their fields !

Lunch was also very traditional with the Brocard Family taking us to their favorite restaurant for lunch followed by  a couple of wine hours tasting.

Nothing beats a Steak Tartere - ahh I ordered mine well done.........

Carly Buttrose, Aust. Caroline Miller, Scot. and David (Cookie) Cook, Aust.

Next its off  to Paris to drop the car off before checking into our hotel for the next 2 nights.
Oh, I nearly forgot, the ticket for the toll gate, it turned  in the door sleeve ! "But it wasn't there yesterday"

Interestingly it was mean’t to take 2.5 hrs to get to Gare Du Nord but the last 10 minutes took closer to 2 hrs alone - Friday afternoon traffic in Paris is no fun !

Champs- Elysees

Tafi Manjala (NZ) and Lachie Sears (AUS)  Nuffield scholars catch up for a night out in Paris before a free day in the City. This means time to catch up on laundry and some admin stuff before taking in the sights. 

View of the Arc de Triomphe from the hotel window.

Sunset from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

An email from Chontell our travel agent in Australia had everyone scrambling for a couple of hours. It seems because the flight to Dublin tomorrow is with Ryan Air, we have to check in online and restrict our baggage to 20 kg - after six weeks of gathering up presents, keepsakes and giveaways from meeting, I don't think so !!! 
Rounding everyone up is a challenge on its own, ten people all gone sightseeing in different directions!
 Figuring out how to get all our luggage to Dublin in the least expensive manner was the next challenge and have you ever tried to find affordable luggage in Paris at short notice....        

And don't forget to print the boarding passes- that will cost an extra 70 Euros ! 
What Bullshit.
My advice is pay the extra and go with a reputable carrier, it's still cheaper in the long run.

More Netherlands

This blog has taken a lot longer to publish than anticipated, due to the fact my beloved Tablet containing my notes from the last six weeks of travel has found a new owner.
I lost sight of it for 2 minutes in Heathrow airport and off it went ! Fortunately most of the data is stored in Dropbox - but not all of it.
So back to the Netherlands.




The Netherlands farming industry is fascinating, there is 70 million Ha of farming land and 70 ,Million people live there, so there is a huge urban population which provides challenges as well as opportunities. Farm sizes are small but intensive, with the average farm size being 27ha (land worth 40 000/ha to buy, 1200 euro/ha to lease). The Dutch are also the second biggest exporters in the world after the US, a large portion of this being value added agricultural products and flowers. The Dutch have a generation that is totally removed from farming, no one knows where their food comes from so there is an emphasis on trying to educate with open days and farmers mingling in cities as part of a public campaign to promote farmers and the sustainable way they manage the land. 

Dutch farmers are heavily regulated, both by the government through the CAP (central agricultural policy which applies to all farmers in the European Union) as well as by their urban society which have some very unrealistic expectations revolving around animal welfare. For example supermarkets have made a statement that they are committed to only buying 'sustainable' meat by 2020, and They, along with consumer will decide what is sustainable, and what is not. Farmers are in a risky position!

The government regulates farmers through the CAP and the individual farm payment scheme. Dutch farmers are heavily subsidised with some farmers recieving up to 900 euro per hectare! Initially we, as unsubsidised Australian and NZ farmers, thought this was an excessive amount, and we felt there was no way we could trade on a global scale in a fair way when farmers receiving this amount of money could afford to sell cheap commodities. However, as the week went on we realised the farmers really did need this payment as the constraints that are put on their production through zoning, quotas, and fertiliser restrictions, compulsory biodiversity (the new CAP will insist on a minimum of 3 different crops grown on each farm ant any one time) were costing them a lot.

Whilst we were in the Netherlands the new CAP had been passed to come into effect in 2015 .which had been modified to be more world trade friendly, with subsidies moving away from commodity based payments to a broader per ha subsidy of around 450 euro, which will halve the incomes of some highly subsidised farmers. This new payment will be attached to greening procedures, and farmers will be expected to return some of their more fragile land to nature conservation and biodiversity. The new CAP will also remove quotas from milk production giving dairy farmers an opportunity to expand. 

The biggest thing I took away from the Netherlands was marketing.
From the farmer level, promoting themselves to the consumer and the resellers and  getting great premiums.
 For example, Friesland Campigna (the biggest dairy coop in The Netherlands, same size as Fonterra) had a advertising campaign where they took dairy farmers and some of their cows and did an exhibition in some of the cities and it was incredibly successful. They also have pictures of their farmers on their packaging.

Some farmers are marketing their produce specifically to the consumer who is worried about animal welfare, such as the Lindenhoff company, which is still family owned and run. They grow out a French breed of cattle in a semi housed environment which has an emphasis on comfort and aesthetics, such as pretty trees growing in the pens! And it works, they butcher their own meat (will received twice the money as 'conventional' beef), and have viewing lounges where chefs can come and watch their meat being processed.
 A visit to Flora Holland
 Flora Holland is one a few places that are linked around Holland to Auction off flowers and potted plants to retailers.
They use a clock system to auction off the material delivered by various growers in the Netherlands and around the world. Starting off at the highest bid/price and then continue sales as the clock goes down. Buyers then bid and have to balance price with the possibility they don't get the quantity and quality they require, - is that what is meant by the term Dutch Auction ?
There are some 3700 units sold by 8 am each day !

Auction Clocks in action

The warehouse floor - note automation.

After a coffee break we headed off to Dinteloord, to see an arable farmer named Adrie Bossers who is a potato, sugar beet and seed grass producer.We toured his farm after having another coffee break and apple pie with he and his wife.
With a climate similar to New Zealand, there is a lot of similarities in the agronomy and yields, so was great to chew the fat with Adrie and discuss common issues.
Interesting to note that Adrie has a few more environmental restrictions with regard to production to navigate than we are accustomed to in NZ. There is however, some hefty buffers in place that are administered out of Brussels !


Below are some notes from a meeting with Henk van Dongen,Fresh Retail on Margeting.
they don't do justice to Henk but are an outline to a great meeting !
Four principles:
Strategy and control,
Research and Analysis,
Creation,
Inspire and share.
We are more international now and travel so need to be aware of overseas trends.
Ageing people with money.
Young adults use social media.
She economy - Women of the house tend to be the spenders.

Marketing your business.
 Three pillars for promotion;
 Food,
Culture, Art.

Create online platform,
 Facebook,
Twitter etc.
Reach information.
For every message put on media receives 4 replies from every 1000 placed.

Convenience food.
Experience Trends- make the details match.
Retailing in Holland started in 1500, in 1930 we had 29000 retailers, now we have 5600.
Rise in online virtual store.
We need to create a demand or need for a product.
Decide who you want to be- one side or the other; you can’t be everything to everyone.

Henk Smit Host, Henk van Dongen, David Cook.

Next stop was a real gem too !

Koppert CressArchitecture .
Aromatique.Rob Baan.
Rob was previously a crop scientist with Syngenta.
He now spend his time finding and developing cress flavours for the restaurant market.
The Scholars were asked to test various flavours including, Licorice, Salt, Peppermint, Honey, Blue Cheese and many more….
Incredible to think that these flavours are naturally occurring in the various cress varieties.
Koppert Cress export around the world and focus on chefs rather than supermarkets.

Rob makes the suggestion we need to link health and agriculture to better promote our products.
Vegetable consumption has dropped by 20% in the last 10 years.
Ror has travelled the world to 90 countries to gain inspiration and varieties.
The greenhouses at Koppert Cress are very sophisticated employ many environmentally friendly systems.  Examples being;
 LED lights used to light greenhouses.
Water for cooling is drawn up from from a well and then warm water is returned.

Many people involved in promotion through social media, twitter, Facebook etc.
The company does 180 exhibitions per year throughout the world.
Use wholesalers in different areas around the world, this is beneficial to logistics.
Production as about 50000 boxes per week at €2 to €20

Kitchen set up for hosting chefs and has the ability to accommodate television crews.
Food shows have helped to encourage customers to source their products.Rob is involved in his own TV channel promoting healthy food. This came about when he was told he would have to pay on the existing channels.

The Perfect Lunch. The flavours from the cress are amazing !

Sunday 30th June we made a trip south to the Merl caves in Valkenburg which is near both the German and Belgian borders.
The caves are  40 metres  underground and were  used to carve out limestone from an underground seam some 2 metres thick for building  work and latterly for restoration of early buildings.
We all hoped on bikes and cycled around 6 kms in the caves - low ceilings meant the helmets were invaluable in keeping the head in one piece !
There is some eighty km of tunnels in the network and even include a church which was used as a fall out shelter during WW2. Sometimes the local residents would spend days or weeks in the tunnels sheltering from the war going on above ground. There are even reports of births taking place in the church.


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The Alter in the underground church.

Following the tunnels, we went to Gulpen to visit Gulpener Brewery. We had a very nice tour of the brewery and bottling plant then later tried some of their “special” beers. Including White Beer, Rose Beer and Pilsner beers.

Author and David Cook sampling Australasian style !

Somewhere among all this we fitted in an afternoon and evening taking in the sights of Amsterdam.
I don't plan to go into too much detail here other than to say there were tours of Anne Franks house and some of us did a tour of the Heineken Brewery.
Being practical agricultural types, one thing that was glaringly obvious was the barley sample in the interactive area of the tour was less than pure - or is that to be a wheat beer blend perhaps !

Also note the soft hands after a month of not much manual labour !

Next stop Belgium....