My Favourite City

If you speak to Liz she will probably tell you how much I go on about New Zealand. But, I can honestly say that Christchurch New Zealand is my favourite place in the world.
I flew down here on Thursday as part of the World Dairy Summit to look at a modern milk powder plant(you can see why it might sound boring but was in fact very interesting) Synlait was set up by a group of farmers to vertically integrate their 4000 ha dairy farm which has 14000 cows. The plant makes baby milk and colostrum powder amongst other things. If you remember I tried a colostrum tablet in China- this is probably where it came from. The company has now been bought out 51% by the chinese- is there a reverse takeover of NZ??

Exciting picture of milk plant

Next was Lincoln University where a coalition of most of the major research persons, supply companies and farmers (yes proactive guys that they are) have got together to create the South Island Dairy Development Company which does lots of research on a commercial basis on a farm owned by the University with 800 cows.

Dairy Farmers in Canterbury have a bad image problem as the local townspeople and some sheep and arable farmers blame them for polluting rivers and using too much water on farms. "Dirty Dairy" is a campaign against them initiated by the hunting and fishing lobby.

The research farm makes money for the University (apparently quite a bit) and the research is helping the farmers image in the area by proving that they don't pollute rivers.

I have been staying in Christchurch the past 2 nights, the weather is fantastic and I have been having some time off- not that it has helped with the bags under my eyes, this traveling is very knackering.

Meeting 2 old friends

On Sunday I flew south to meet 2 old friends
I visited New Zealand in 1988; that is so long ago, and it was a great feeling seeing the sunny pastures unfold beneath the plane. I love this place.
The second old friend was Christine Armstrong who between us we agreed I had not seen for 15 years. OMG!!
Christine showed me some of the delights of Sunday evening Auckland- and she hasn't changed a bit, what a laugh we had.
Typically we said we would leave the pub when the band played a rubbish song, unfortunately this was not until about 2am- the conference is not going to be easy tomorrow.

Sky Tower and Auckland Skyline

The conference was in fact much bigger than just a conference it was the World Dairy Summit at the Sky Tower Convention Centre which is attended by 2000 of the worlds top dairy persons- and me.
Topics under discussion were environmental impact, financial stability of markets, sustainable systems and when is the next round.... sorry, I mean networking session.
Monday:
The first session was the World Leaders Forum where 6 of the worlds leading dairy contributors discussed topics around farming, processing and environment. The discussions were well run by a local media star who kept the session lighter than may have been he case otherwise.
I'm not sure I heard anything new but it is clear that everyone is optimistic for world dairy trade- try telling that to the UK processors!!
At lunch I met with Tim Deane at Fonterra the company that processes and sells more than 80% of New Zealands milk.
I asked whether Fonterra used the image of green free range milk from New Zealand to sell milk overseas, Tim thought it helps them get a hold in certain markets; particularly China, but ti does not help to command a price advantage.
He said the company did not support the use of feed lots in sensitive parts of New Zealand and ruled out their use in other areas due to competitiveness. He didn't seem to think that there was a link to the feed lots being built in China by Fonterra.
In the evening I had a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture for New Zealand Hon David Carter- what a good guy- and so very approachable. I had been allocated a half hour meeting so I quickly got into questions for my study about what the govt of New Zealand thought of some issues around the perception of Dairy Farming in New Zealand and of their products around the world. He comes across as pragmatic and very supportive of the image of farming in his country. He was also of the view that a move to more feeding of cows away from pasture was an inevitable part of the growth of NZ Dairy. After our meeting I was invited to join the Ministers party at a drinks reception at the museum of boats (actually called the maritime museum- someone must like it??)

The first pastoral robotic milking unit in NZ

Tuesday:

Was "lets get out in the sun day" or more formally known as the farm tours.

We visited a research farm run by Dairy NZ to see demonstrations on effluent spreading- I was here 25 years ago and it has moved on very little. A paddock of weeds, sorry chicory and plantains was being touted as the next big thing... sorry it just doesn't look like the levy is being well spent here.

Next, was a robotic system for grazing cows which was a fantastic looking place (see above) but, spending nearly £250,000 on a unit for 95 cows when down the road there are units of 1500 cows or more and the average herd in NZ is 300 cows just doesn't stack up for me.

At our final farm, a well run environmental farm in the middle of the biggest swamp in NZ was very good, but again we were told that grass was the cheapest form of feed, compared to other feeds like palm kernel costed at $400NZ. But, what an embarrassment for DairyNZ- when asked by an Aussie what was the cost of grass then? No-one had an answer.... ooops.

And Tim makes 4

Back to Sydney.
Weather still rubbish- I have come to Australia in the coldest spring for years. Should have planned to be north for the weather, but still having fun.
Today Tim has arrived (thats Tim Bennett Chairman of DairyCo) he is here to present a speech at a conference entitled "Issues Management" he's here with Michael Lambert who is a great guy and a director of Worldwide Sires.
The conference was really interesting and on topic for my Nuffield Study (see I am doing some thing towards it) there were speakers from around the world.
It appears that many countries have very similar issues affecting them which the rest of the population (or maybe just pressure groups) have a problem with.
The main ones are

• Environmental issues (pollution and habitats) 
• Animal Welfare (including practices such as inducing, de-horning late, lameness and housing)
• Fat in milk
• baby calves-and what we do with them

It was heartening to see that farmer organisations around the world are all working towards helping to support the image of Dairy whatever system or size you happen to be. Mike from Northern Island Dairy Council- you are a star!!

Dinner was in darling harbour hosted by the inimitable Jim Begg from Dairy UK. 

An account of the evening is available on his blog

http://www.dairyuk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=260&Itemid=342

The funniest thing was seeing the big guy lose his glasses off the end of his nose into his fish chowder, his expression will stay with me for some time to come.

The following day Tim had organised for us all to travel south to see some farming in NSW, we visited some wonderful farms one of which had the cleanest milking parlour and yard I have ever seen (mental note for home) the Aussies are really good at mixing grazing with feeding, and are very keen on helping with succession.

Tim Burford, Tim Bennett, Michael Lambert and Karen Wannacott talking triple cropping with Santiago (great name)

The trip also included a visit to the University of Sydney to see work on double and triple cropping systems; it must be nice to grow maize, kale and barley in the same year..... thanks to Tim Burford who must have had matchsticks holding his eyes open by the time he dropped us off in Sydney centre.

On Friday I had organised to see a small version of the Nocton Dairy type of system run by Michael Perich (his family are building a town ?? Why does he farm cows?)

This farm was 2000 cows and if this is how big this type of farm is then Nocton will be amazingly huge. The area this farm filled was amazing. 

There were 4 sheds of 500 cows like this with exercise lots between

Michael was very open, and I really enjoyed seeing the farm; the cows were very happy and well looked after, but I have to say the scale of this would be difficult to neighbour. I can see why the little village of Nocton might be worried by something 4 times the size.

Michael let his cows graze when dry and two interesting facts were

• The economies of scale are lost after 1000 cows
• Labour and management time are the hardest parts of a large scale operation.

grazing cows on Perich farm- look at the length of the grass

The Perich farm produces milk for a2 milk which is milk containing only a2 protein. His cows are selected to produce this special milk and he is paid a premium for it. The milk is sold as a "Healthy alternative" to normal milk. This is interesting given that the system of production would be contentious in the UK by a certain group of consumer and in Oz it produces a health drink for a similar demograph of consumer.

Circular quay

Another funny incident straight out of an english sit com was a little R&R that the gang of 4 from DairyCo did on Saturday before we all left for NZ. See that big boat on the harbour above? We thought we'd booked on one of these and it pulled away to reveal a tiny little yellow boat which fitted about 8 people which was actually our boat, we went for a cruise in Sydney harbour and it rained so hard we could barely see a thing- maybe you had to be there but I could only laugh.....

Cool town Melbourne

The DairyCo mini-tour of Victoria started really early on monday morning, the cool town am referring to is the 6 degree temperature which was not expected, Dr Wannacott and myself were feeling a little chilly as we made our way by car to Dairy Australia HQ in downtown Melbourne.
We were on our way to meet Julie Iommi whose exotic name defies the fact that she is a highly motivated english rose who used to work for the NFU.
Julie arranged for us to meet an array of people who work in or around Dairy farmers in Australia.
She first gave us a rundown on what Dairy Australia do and how they work through a plethora of farmer related anacronyms a worrying spiders web of dairy farm related organisations materialised which must cost a fortune in administration, and dairy farmers in the UK worry about our lost money!!
This aside the gang at Dairy Australia do very similar work for farmers as DairyCo in the UK and I was pleased to see that they feel money is better spent supporting farmers image as opposed to generic advertising- this could be described as a meeting of minds.The main difference between the British Levy fund and Oz is that they have at least 3 times as much to spend as we do!!

Countryside near Melbourne

We met the guys who actually put calves into schools across Australia to promote farming; it works for them, but can you imagine the risk assesment for that in the UK?
There is a big emphasis on nutrient budgetting, carbon footprint and greenhouse gases- in fact the same issues as back home.
Cathy Phelps the greenhouse guru (the Dr Wannacott of Dairy Australia) tried to tell me that cow poo in a field is the same as cow poo in a slurry pit; the guys at the next visit to Ellinbank research institute restored my faith by explaining that collected poo creates methane in the pit until it is spread whereas cows who poo in the field stop producing it almost as soon as they poo. This may sound really boring to you readers but, to me this is pure gold- How sad am I??
Ellinbank spends lots of time, effort and money feeding different food additives to cows to see if they fart more or less; I am sure the guys there would like me to describe this more scientifically but to me this is what it looked like. Dr Wannacott may be able to give you the more scientific explanation.

Dr Wannacott in a fart machine- honestly!!

We now travel down to Gippsland to stay with an Aussie Nuffield called Graeme Nicholl, what a great guy and what a lovely family. We sat up reasonably late (considering how tired we were) for supper and a discussion on carbon; this appears to be the trouble when traveling with a greenhouse gas expert.

Tuesday morning was really cold, but the sun was out. We looked around Graemes farm, which is based on really lovely farmland carved out of the bush by his grandfather; those old immigrants from the UK really worked hard in colonial Oz. Thanks again Graeme for your hospitality.

you can see how wet it has been in Victoria behind me

On our way back to the airport Graeme had arranged for us to visit a couple of farms one with 1000 cows on a pure pastoral system, thanks for letting us look around Max (the inventor)

Peter Notman was a real interesting chap who has built a one man farming seed and extension service along with his lovely wife and family. what a guy.

The day was very finely timed and I'm sure Karen was as impressed with my rallying skills as I was with her navigating skills.

P.S I hate Hyundai Getz

Down Under

Arriving in Australia I am pleased I did not ditch some of my warm clothes in China- the weather is unseasonably cold and wet.
My first problem was a lack of hotel as staying in Hong Kong an extra day caused them some confusion, even though it was all paid up front they cancelled my room. 11.30pm on saturday night is not a good time to find a room.
My first day in Sydney was spent catching up on ...stuff!
I also managed a quick trip to the theatre to see a british theatre company 1927 who gave an excellent presentation of "the animals and children took to the streets"

                                                   cheesey grin

Tomorrow I am heading to Melbourne with Dr Karen Wannacott to meet with farmers and farm organisations.

A spell in Hong Kong

A quick stopover in Hong Kong with my old mate Michael Hope and his family turned quickly into a short (and much needed)break of two nights.I always thought that Hong Kong was just a big city perched on a rock. it turned out to be a really beautiful island destination, with beaches, inlets, islands, sun, disney and fantastic shopping, as well as some of the best food ever (or was this just a relief after eating.. anything in China.

                                               Hong Kong fishing village

Michael, Jill, Jack and Max looked after me really well- a great impression of their great city and a really welcome rest before heading off to Australia.

Going down?

The next stop on the Nuffield UK China Group trip was Guangdong province. We flew into Guangzhou to stay the night in a rather orange hotel.
Guangdong province is right at the bottom of China and has a tropical climate.
it has always been the gateway to trade with the west, it is joined to Hong Kong which was under UK control until 1997.
The recent economic boom in China began in this province and during our stay we met one of this areas entrepreneurial businessmen- Micahel- What a star! He could hardly contain his energy as he showed us around his factory, which made anything out of tarpaulin material from bbq covers to building covers!! Quite a guy and it was clear that in this region anything is possible.
We got a feel for the kind of commerce that happens in China with a hint of corruption thrown in; My stay in Hong kong later confirmed that back handers are often the way t get ahead.
While in Taishin city we were the unlikely stars of the school curriculum, we were split into twos and rather unprompted were expected to take an English class to 13-14 year old students from one of the areas top schools; I now admire schoolteachers even more- although a little bit of lesson planning might have been useful. I'm not sure how useful my sketches of cows and pigs might be to the future of  China or Helen's description of pigs ears and tails sent from britain to China- how kind we are.
Never the less we seemed to make an impact.

                                                             your unlikely teachers today are....

We visited some wet markets in this area, if ever you need a bunch of frogs (tied up by the legs and alive) or a cute kitten in a kitten sized cage this is the place to visit.
Meat is kept fresh by the means of pure luck- chicken is kept fresh by being alive!! We are sure we saw a skinned cat.... but hey this is how it is, but it did put me off my lunch a little.

                                                   I wont trouble you with the close ups!!

We visited what can only be described as a peasant farming village- although this is a bit unfair as they had mobile phones; how can his be a priority when you cant afford a bathroom.
This gave us an insight into how most of China still farms. After the cultural revolution of Chairman Mao each person in China was allocated a plot of land about 2 acres in size.
This still exists today and to be honest the farmers get very good productivity from this land earning about £800- £1200 from their allocation a year.
Many subsidise their incomes from handouts from more successful family members.
We saw the most awful pig farm, and a really clean one.
We saw peanuts; why did i not know they grew underground, how did that pass me by?
We saw hundreds of ducks packed onto a small piece of land; at least in the UK they would be hidden in a shed!!
All in all my general impression of this type of farming is that it is unlikely to be a threat to farming in the west....yet.

                                                    some sort of farming sharabang

Quote of the day- Bulls**t

Friday evening was hosted by James Su Hao who helped us with plans for Hohhot and kindly offered to speak to us and buy us dinner. He spoke to us at our induction in Washington, and has grown his company from relative poorness to current multi- skilled group organisation.
East Rock amongst other things makes Hunter wellies, cow and horse mats and  currently builds dairy farm infrastructure for the growing dairy industry, based around large scale American operations.
He is a very interesting bloke who has travelled an interesting road from a poor rural family to a protesting student (he was thrown out of university for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests) to a highly conservative businessman steeped in capitalism.
He told us about how the melamine scandal came about in china when poor farmers added melamine to their milk to boost their income, given that these guys have two cows and an income of about £240 per year its not surprising, however this literally killed lots of children and seeped confidence in the dairy industry away.
Chinese people are to some degree conditioned and are very trusting of what they are told by their government. When I asked James about the images of grass fed cows used in the dairy advertising he said “This is bullshit!!” it appears that the government has backed this approach and the general public are now satisfied that  milk is now safe; however I am not convinced that they are.
Milk will be increasingly produced in large scale feed lots and the dairy companies are looking to be rid of the poorer small farmers because they are extremely inefficient and cannot be trusted to produce quality milk.
James treated us to some of the best chinese food I have ever tasted- what a difference to lunch, and also a taste of the new breed of chinese business men

We then visited the great Wall of China and all those touristy things around Beijing. incredible we went up to the wall by cable car; but even more amazingly came down by a louge slide!!