CANFA Comment

19 Aug: Dallas, Texas
After another couple of flights, here we are in Dallas ready to leave tomorrow for Mexico. We're having a great time!

In St Louis we saw Monsanto's headquarters - 2,500 employees and 5,000 all up in St Louis.They spend more on ag research than the USDA does.

We went to Gavilon Grain Elevators, after which a couple of Texans lead us on a visit to their farms - pretty impressive. They are having more than a month of temps above 100F and in the midst of a serious drought which they are starting to compare to the 1930's Dust Bowl, but this time without the dust storms. Despite the dry they are still harvesting some crops such as sunflowers and cotton.

We had lunch at a real Texan bar at the Fort Worth Stock Yards - they had saddles as bar stools!

A free day tomorrow before another flight to Mexico which we are all greatly looking forward to.

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22 Aug: Cimmyt, Mexico
Hi there from Mexico City, our last visit on the GRDC’s The way we were trip.

Yesterday we went to Cimmyt and met the farm manager Fernando Delgardo (pictured here in wheat trials at Cimmyt) who ran an excellent experimental station with a lot of emphasis on breeding wheat and corn for international partners, but always kept in mind his obligation to improve the local farming systems that are around 1 acre per farmer (with livestock included). The chief breeder, Dr Ravi Singh from Sydney Uni, gave us an excellent insight into how plant breeding for wheat works and their ambition to be ahead of the next global catastrophe in wheat diseases. He was able to quote wheat breeds, like Cook and Hartog, that we direct descendants of Mexican Cimmyt breeding programs.

Australian, Dr David Bonnett showed us his trials pre-breeding to bring back the genetics of ancient grasses and durum wheats to bring more diversity into the genome pool, bringing hybrid vigour back into the breeding program so that they may be selected to put into the main line of breeding. We are privledged to met such clever people as we have travelled.

We are visiting the Australian Ambassador this afternoon and back to the headquarters of Cimmyt tomorrow before we fly back to Chicago to catch up with John Lawrie's tour of USA and Mexico. It will be great to catch up with them.

Anne Williams

16 Aug: St Louis
It seems weeks since the last update as we have seen so much. Since then we have seen a Hutterite community, a farm visit along with some ag exchange students (some Aussies), then Pioneer in Des Moine and now we're here in St Louis to visit Monsanto - lots of flights and late nights, but all very exciting.

The visit to Lionel and Melody Ector's farm out of Saskatoon may have been the highlight for me. They grow speciality crops such as lentils and corianda which they pack themselves from 0.5 kg to 1 tonne bags for export. They also grow wheat, chickpeas (but not since 1998 due to disease), canola, field peas and mustards. Wheat is their less profitable crop. Like us, they have variable weather but have developed a well-run and professional farm and seed business - well worth a visit.

Anne Williams

13 Aug: Canada

11 Aug: Scotland
Since the last email we arrived safely in Bristol and left again without seeing any violence. Our mini-bus got graffiti on it though which was a shame as it was relatively new and the driver owned it.

We had the most amazing drive up to Edinburgh seeing first class farming country and scenery, even a couple of castles. We stopped for lunch by the Irish sea near Lancaster and at a pub across the border in Scotland for a break before arriving about here about 8pm.

Today we went and had an official visit with many of the researchers at the Scottish Ag College (SAC) whose mission is to enhance the rural economy and environment. After the introduction presentations we went to visit some trial work - unfortunately in the rain. But we wouldn't have missed it for the world. We saw barley and wheat trials and greenhouse gas emission work. They had large tubes covering patches in plots of different fertilisers and rates to estimate the amount of nitric oxide emissions. This gas is much more detrimental in terms of climate change than carbon dioxide.

Some of the researchers we met were Jaan Ratsap and Dr Neil Havis who are working on biopolymers as an alternative to fungicides. Apparently every plant has the ability to defend itself by becoming resistant to pathogen attack by producing elicitors. These and other plant derived materials can be sprayed on plants to help the plant fight fungal infections. GRDC is collaborating with SAC so it means that Australian growers would be in the box seat if this research leads to a final product. It sounds exciting research and just what we need as it gives another tool to be able to use to prolong the life of fungicides.

I also was speaking to Dr Oliver Knox who was interested in our compost operation. Apparently he spent time at Narrabri so knew our area well. He is also doing some exciting work with biochar. Dr Bruce Ball, a soil scientist, gave us a quick run down on visible testing of soil structure and how to rank it. He works closely with David McKenzie from Australia - talk about a small world.

Interestingly at the wheat trials they had trials without nitrogen and fungicide that were very sparse compared to the other plots that were expecting to yield 9-11t/ha. These were only expected to yield about 3 t/ha....no wonder they put nitrogen on!I said that we wish we could get such a yield increase but they said that they would prefer to be able to do what we do with the compost!

Only about 1% of farmers in Scotland use no-till but the farmer who owned place where the trials were was keen to try it, especially if it could cut down on diesel use.

Anyway that is all from Scotland and England. We fly out tomorrow morning for Canada which will be great but a little sad as this is a fantastic country and well worth a longer visit.

Anne and Ray Williams

9 Aug: England
We left London this morning and unfortunately the visit to Red tractor was cancelled but kept coming here to Bristol. As a back up we arrived at Stone Henge for a quick look! There were not too many people there when we arrived so we spent about an hour walking around it. I was lost in another world for that time - magnificent! We continued on and had lunch in an English pub - very old and quaint in a little village.
 
We had a farm visit about 3pm to someone Tony was able to line up at the last minute and it was exceptional. It was called The Great Tew Estate, about 4,000 acres with a 40,000 tonnes grain drier facility! The manager, Colin Woodward showed us around the the massive grain sheds and later we went and saw some wheat being harvested. Pictured is the readout from the yield monitor. Colin thought that it was not 100% accurate. But he thought that it might yield about 12 t/ha.

After that we saw a machine cultivating this year's wheat stubble. It was offset discs with deep rippers and press wheels. They then have one-pass at sowing. Colin said that only about 10% of UK is no-till and he did not think it would work for him because of compaction on his soil type.
 
We left about 6pm and arrived at Bath for dinner in another pub. I think this is where my mother's mother was born. So I've come home to the old country! It is a stunning city with wonderful old buildings. We arrived late at the hotel and are heading to Edinburgh tomorrow. It is all a fantastic trip!
 
Anne and Ray Williams

8 Aug: London
Since my last report we had a flight back to London, everything was going to plan, quick trip to the airport and early arrival in London until we hit the M5 and sat on it for 6 hours because of an accident that had happened the day before! All the motorists were very pleasant about it though.

As a consequence we were late (arrived 6 pm) to visit the Millenium seed bank but Robin who runs it stayed behind to met us and also arranged some food and drinks for us for which we were very appreciative as some only had breakfast and hadn't eaten the biscuit they gave us on the plane. It was a very interesting stop and well worth the visit. After an introduction presentation we toured the labs and where the seeds are stored. Thirty thousand (30,000) species in the vaults makes it the largest live plant diversity per square metre than anywhere else on earth. The buildings are first class.

After arriving at the hotel here at 11pm were went down the street and had a meal in a Chinese restaurant. We had a day off yesterday and people did there own things. Heard on the news about some riots but they were not near us. Ray and I, along with Graig and Helen caught the 'big bus' (double decker open top) and toured the city. We got off at the tower of London and caught a cruise down the Thames to Big Ben, had traditional fish and chips in the rain on the banks of the river. London is a fanastic city, lots of tourists but everyone happy.

Highlights of the Seed Bank visit:
* 80% of plant based food intake comes from 12 domesticated plant species, 8 cereals and 4 tubers
* Drying seeds down by 1% relative humidity doubles the life of the seed and once dried every 5 degrees drop in temperature doubles the life again. Some seeds could be stored for a thousand years.
* We saw an X-ray machine that can detect internal insect infection.

Anne and Ray Williams

7 Aug: France
Since the last update we went for a drive in the French countryside to Longue to vist LimaGrain where Jean-Jacques Poutoire, the research centre manager, met us to show us around. The farm land looked absolutely beautiful, the wheat was mostly harvested and the corn is still green. The rolling hills and little villages made quite a picture.

After the four hour bus drive we had group discussion with Jean where we introduced ourselves and he outlined the companies features and goals. We were treated with an excellent lunch, rolls and french red wine and tart. We then had a tour of the sheds looking at machinery and labs before visiting the nursery where they are growing different types of corn. They place paper bags on the male tussel for 1 day and after the female cobs is fertilised it is bagged until harvest to stop further contamination. A long process as each row must be daily checked as different plants come in at different times.

It was a long drive back to Paris arriving about 9 pm. We felt sorry for the French bus drivers keeping them from their Friday night activities but they were pleasant about it.

Main points of interest about Lima Grain
* Lima grain is a farmer cooperative that breeds corn at this centre.
* It also has an $14 million investment with GRDC and CSIRO called Arista which is investing in wheat varieties and is looking at developing an high amylose wheat (low GI and high fibre) that has many health properties such as reducing diabeties, colon cancer etc.
* At this research site they have two breeding programs, trial evaluation teams and seed production teams
* There are 14 breeding sites in Europe, 3 seed production sits in France (4000ha)
* It takes about 7 years to get to the production stage.
* They are getting about 1.5% genetic gain per year in yield. The corn averages about 8-9t/ha in France but they have got up to 20 t/ha in some experimental plots.
* Corn acreage is stable but slightly decreasing in France but increasing in Germany. This is mainly due to the nuclear energy ban and going to biogas to produce methane for electricity.
* The plot harvesters have automatic yield, moisture, protein etc so there is no need to bag each plot. I am sure the DPI would love that when they harvest the NVT trials.
* At Longue there is 22 permanent staff and 31000 hours of seasonal workers.

This ends an excellent but short trip to France. We had a wonderful time but in the morning we were on the plane again back to London - it is hard but someone has to do it!

Anne and Ray Williams

5 Aug: Paris
For those that may not know we are on the GRDC The way we were tour.  There are 3 couples (Ray and I winners from the northern panel, Graig and Helen southern panel (Vic) winners and Tony and Peta from the western panel (WA) winners. Kylie from GRDC and Grega from Rural Press

It seems like weeks since we left home, but we're in Paris and have finally caught up with sleep. After arriving in Singapore we had free time in the morning so Ray and I walked around and had a ride on the Singapore flyer apparently the largest ferris wheel in the world but we did get magnificant views of the city despite the fog. It was very warm but not unbearable.

After lunch in a food court we all went off to our first official visit to Prima Mills flour mill, where we got an excellent reception from Lim Kay Kong (KK) the executive director and others. We had a meeting where we introduced ourselves and they outlined their company. Then we had a tour of the lab, food tasting kitchen and mill and KK walked us down to the nearest shopping centre to change money and to taste the local beer (Tiger - very nice). We stayed and had a meal in the revolving Chinese restaurant on top of one of their silos with magnificent views of the lights of the city at night.

We flew out at midnight then landed at Heathrow for a couple of hours before catching a flight to Paris. We had lunch at a wonderful restaurant and discussion turned to the promotion of Australian farm products. No solutions but all interesting (their red wine helped).

We had a tour of the city - this is when sleep was catching up with me - they had to wake me to show me the Eiffel tower. We came back for an hours rest before heading off for dinner but I couldn't wake up so we decided to pass so the others went and we slept.

The main take home messages from Prima mill visit:
* Their goal is to produce consistent products so customers will also come back to them and this reflects back to us as producers of wheat.
* From 6 types of flour they buy from around the world they produce 150 types of flour. Australian wheat has the best qualities but they still need other wheat to blend for particular needs.
* As a flour mill buying wheat their main concern is that after the deregulation of the AWB there is no independant umpire to ensure quality. We once had the excellent reputation of delivering exactly what we said we were delivering (protein grade, moisture etc) but now that confidence is gone. This company prides in the ability to blend specifically for customers demands so not having to double check standards would be a bonus. We are now relying on the trustworthiness of independent marketers to maintain that image.
* It is amazing what they find in wheat from some countries - stones, dirt, he even said bikes. We should be proud of our receival standards and make sure we keep them up.
* There are great opportunities for niche markets
* Educating the customer comes first before a product is introduced. This is where organic movement excelled and the GMO movement has failed.
* The company has diversified into making sauces and noodles for stir fries and soup and laksa (premium high end product priced very high so not to compete with cheaper alternatives) and have bakery franchises (sells the frozen bread to them to bake in the shops). They also have a state of the art computer system to run the mill and are selling this technology to other companies. And they run baking schools.

Anyway this trip has started off extremely well and looking forward to each day.

Anne and Ray Williams