It's a little bit chilly !!

Back home on the farm it has been difficult to get back in the swing of things- however, it seems that in general I am not needed around the place, except when bills are to pay.

The dairy herd has done tremendously well this year thanks to good management by the staff on farm and a better milk price from our milk purchaser.
We have supplied Caledonian Cheese Company in Stranraer for the past 3 years, they have been very good to us, but our payment this time last year was about 5ppl lower than it is now, this is a whopping £60,000 difference if applied to all our production.
The "swing" in price is something that seems endemic to the cheese price and so I have made the momentous decision to move away from this buyer and supply milk to Grahams Family Dairy in Stirling- the only thing is I need to change the breed of most of my cows from what we have now, Jersey x Holstein cows (see here)

To completely Jersey cows like these (but a bit better)

This change is all set for January so they will be settled in nicely before I head off on my next trip to India on my next Nuffield Trip.

I am really looking forward to supplying Grahams and I hope this is the start of a long and fruitful relationship for both companies.
www.grahamsfamilydairy.com

The end of the middle bit

I am writing the end of this travelog back in the UK.
Its funny how you can lose internet when travelling and then with all the best intentions completely lose time whne you return home.
The weather doesn't help so memories of warmer places come flooding back.
After my very tiring fly around the Lincoln University and Synlait milk plant in Canterbury, I spent a couple of well earner rest nights (and one day) in Christchurch.
I managed to meet up briefly with an old mate Andy Fox, I went to the Canterbury Show (met up with fellow Nuffield Arwyn from Wales who is still over there!!) and did a bit of culture seeing the Ron Mueck exhibition as well as a visit to the theatre. Excellent fun all round.

                                                   I resist the temptation for a joke. This is art.
After my little jolly in Christchurch ( did I tell you I love Christchurch?) I spun off down the road to Temuka to meet with David Ellis who has a large scale farming operation in the sensitive MacKenzie Country.
The area is of outstanding natural beauty and was used in the Lord of the Rings films. It is very much on the tourist trail but with a little irrigation this relatively cheap sheep grazing land can become very productive grazing.
An application has recently been lodged to build (shock horror) CUBICLE housing for cows in the area for about 18000 cows. This has caused a similar debate (or is that furore) to the one caused in Nocton. There seems to be a similar theme of farmers who for their own very good reasons are planning a big operation but are trying to impose it on a community rather than negotiate it in. There really is a lesson in public relations here.

                                          Look at this picture postcard view. Mackenzie NZ
After this I traveled down to meet Les Keeper a fellow Nuffield from a few years back. He has very conflicting ideas on NZ Dairy structure, and sold out his industry shares to invest in property in Queenstown; (a bit like Keswick only better) Sitting in his hot tub discussing the merits of his actions while looking over to some of the most expensive real estate in NZ I can't help thinking he may be right.

                                               Les lives in Queenstown- look at my little pot belly...
After leaving Les's millionaire pad in Queenstown I travelled back through some of the most stunning scenery in the world.
I arrived in time for tea at Desiree and Paul's house in Temuka on the East coast. I last visited this area 23 years ago and there are lots more cows there now. The average size of herd in NZ is now 300 cows but many in the South Island are well over this. Des and Paul have big plans to increase their herd and buy more farms... they are doing a great job so far.
Des took me to meet other farmers in the area including her Dad who has a very tidy operation in partnership with another couple the farm was brand new and was very professional. He is also a very clever inventor... I must remember to ask about his electronic ID kit. The prototype in his garden looked a little like a clothes dryer , but it seemed to work well at a fraction of the price.
Andy and Rachel Morris had worked their way from very little to owning 2 herds of cows each about 400 cows. They got there via hard work on hill stations, joint venture with sheep and beef, selling shares in businesses at a personal loss, but all in the name of moving forward at all times. They are an inspiration and are currently working on ideas to help water management, which will improve farmers efficiencies as well as their image!

Andy Palmer who lives on Muff Road (why did I remember his address) is also working hard to improve farmers image by planting natural vegetation back onto parts of his farm not used for grazing.
My time in NZ is nearly up, and so is this part of my Nuffield Research (I know it looks like a jolly, but honestly....)
Thanks to Des and Paul, Les, Sarah, Andy, Andy, Andy, David and The Court Jesters.

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.