Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference - The End of The Beginning

Sunday morning arrived all too quickly after a late night in the bar; continuing  the discussions after Steve Larocque's excellent presentation; dancing, talking and letting our hair down (those of us that have any).  We even got restricted in the bar to one drink per person per hour, but that didn't dampen anybodies spirits.  Over the week I have made some incredible friendships and had some very interesting conversations and discussions about farming, global threats, encouraging new entrants into agriculture, trying to strengthen the appeal of agriculture to our customers and how we can feed people more sustainably.  I have also learnt that other farmers around the whole world are having the same discussion that we are, we are not alone and that by talking about problems, solutions can be found.  Soberingly I also appreciate the small part we, the UK, have to play in the global production of food.  However our part is becoming clearer to me, we need to be more productive, more efficient, more environmentally aware and better linked to our customer, whether that is the supermarket selling our lamb or the flour miller grinding the wheat that we grow.  Just the right time for my study topic, 20T/ha in 20 Years time, Fact or Fiction?

I also have 78 new best friends.  You might think that is impossible after only a week, but I know that if I wanted to go and visit any of the #Nuffield13 scholars doors would be wide open in all four corners of the globe and that is something very special.  Of course that is mirrored here at Overbury.  The washing machine will be maintained regularly to make sure it's ready to be pressed into service.

It really was a great week and one that will stay with me forever.  I know that we all felt the same way, and it was hard to say good bye to everyone; assuming that, as a group, we will probably never be together again.  There will be reunions from time to time but I sadly doubt all of us will be together again.

For some it was on with the Global Focus Group Tour, something I plan to do in the future.  Blake Vince (above) from Ontario is part of that group who headed to Washington DC very early on Sunday morning to continue the 7 week world tour.  Next week (8th April) they are in the UK so we'll meet up again, which will be fantastic to hear their stories from California and Brazil, having seen some facebook pictures and comments.

For others it was heading back to Toronto airport and back to the UK, but for me; I headed North West with Karen Daynard (CDN), Julian Raine (NZ) and Karen Brosnan (IRE) back to Guelph.

We stopped along the way at Sue-Anne Staff's winery, you could say for 'one for the road' and then after dropping Julian and Karen along the way, Karen (CDN- next to me) headed to her parents house. Terry and Dot Daynard had very kindly offered to put me up for the night.

I have to say it was a great feeling to be in a proper home and not living out of a suitcase for a change.  Terry and Dot cooked a lovely meal (on the BBQ in the snow, proper Canadian's) and we were joined by Karen and her sister Kelly, who spoke earlier in the week on social media.  After a great nights sleep and Dot doing some washing for me (thank you so much), we had a look around the farm buildings and the outside corn store

which was used to store corn (maize) on the cob over winter.  The cold dry air would keep the crop safe gradually drying it out over the winter before it was sold.  Terry and Dot showed me some pictures of the store being filled.  In a dry year the cobs would flow easily up the elevator but if they were wet almost every one had to be prodded up into store. We also has a sneaky peak around the machinery shed and saw this little beauty..

tucked away.  I guess it was a sign, once entangled in the Nuffield world there is no escaping!

Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference - Wednesday, Speaking Up For Agriculture

I was really looking forward to getting stuck into day 3 of the conference, a day entitled 'Speaking up for Agriculture'  Kelly Daynard works for an organisation called Food and Farm Care who are the voice of Agriculture sector bodies in the province of Ontario.  The organisation's role is to promote credible truthful, factual and real stories about the family farms of Ontario and to tell these stories to the customers who buy that food.  We heard how farmers are among the most respected in the community, after emergency service staff and veterinarians.  We heard how Kelly and the team are training farmers, old and young, ranchers and crop farmers, rural and more urban, to be willing and available to promote the industry.  This is about training them to speak to the media, go on television and write letters to the newspapers promoting their food and farming stories.  This training is moving out across Canada to British Columbia and Prince Edwards Island.  Food and Farm Care is also looking at other initiatives to engage with the public through Virtual Farm Tours , Faces of Farming Calendar and Lets Talk Farm Animals If 50 farmers took 10 minutes a day for 5 days of the week that would equate to a full time employee doing marketing for the industry.  Image what could be achieved in the UK or globally?

After Karen was Bern Tobin who was giving us media training.  What was the message we wanted to get across, how would we achieve that and did we need to bring in help form other people?  Bern told us to try and stick on message all times, to keep our game-face on throughout the interview and to be clear thinking and use language that could be understood by everyone.  He quoted Denzil Washington "explain it to me like I am a 7 year old" which is so very true and a comment I will remember and try and stick to. After Bern was Andrew Campbell who gave us an insight into Social Media.

I knew social media was big but I hadn't realised just how big!  Facebook (or FaceTube - #Nuffield13 joke) has 1 billion active users and twitter has 500 million users.  People are hungry for this method of engagement and short sharp communication!  We were warned though, information on the Internet is like toothpaste, once it's out of the tube it won't go back in!  I think I will be starting to use Instagram next so watch out for updates coming your way.

Agriculture More Than Ever is an industry cause to improve perceptions and create positive dialogue about Canadian agriculture.  George Klosler from Farm Credit Canada gave a great presentation about this organisation and how it is trying to raise the awareness of our great industry.  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.  A huge thanks to FCC for sponsoring our shirts for the Nuffield group to proudly wear on our trip and he's Tafi Manjala from New Zealand very proudly displaying his new shirt! 

Len Kahn was next up, to tell us all about marketing ourselves.  We are the brand, how do we stand out in a very noisy world and how do we get our message across.  It was a great lesson all about PPEAS, Preparation, Practice, Eye contact, Appearance and Smile.

Last but by no means least we had a trio of local business people all at the top of their respective games from different farming sectors.  First up was Jackie Frasier (Middle) who runs Fraberts Fresh Food her message to me was be part of the community and focus on quality, quality quality.  There also needs to be a strong brand and there needs to be trust!

On the left (above) is Bruce Vandenburg, who owns Mariposa Dairy a company making goats cheese. The company has grown very quickly in the last 5 years with the help of one of the international supermarkets.  On the left we heard form Jason Verkaik who runs a 250 acres vegetable farm (Carron Farms) on the Holland Marsh.  Jason runs a fantastic business on rich soils growing many different vegetables including ones demanded by the growing the niche populations near Toronto, including East Indian Red Carrots.  Jason also started a harvest box scheme, as well as growing a wide range of crops from legumes to leafy greens, strawberries to gourds.

It was another long day and the last one in Guelph, so after dinner at the Borealis Grille it was time to explore The Ranch (Country and Western) bar, inhabited by a single Canadian and us.  After a hybrid Irish and Scottish country dancing, the staff very kindly started up the bucking bronco and we all had a go at staying on board!

Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference - Guelph

Well where do I start, I think I have heard that before somewhere on this trip already.  I will try and summarise what we have been doing for the last few days in Canada.  I arrived on my own having flown Air Canada instead of BA and eventually met up with the rest of the UK scholars at Toronto airport.  We loaded up and headed for the Delta hotel in Guelph where we were met by the Nuffield Canada team!  We were all kitted out in the hockey shirts, checked into the hotel, met our room mates and headed for the local hockey rink.  I am sharing a room with Jason Size who is a stone fruit farmer from Bookpurnong in South Australia.  Jason is studying the flavours and customer preferences for stone fruit.

Whilst at the hockey match a few of us took part in a burger making competition, the only thing was, we were the buns.  I teamed up with Andrew Janaway from the UK, and our Southern hemisphere competitors were Trent De Paoli (Australia) and Natasha King (New Zealand).  The object was to build the full burger with foam cheese, salad, burger and pickles out on the ice, trying to run backward and forwards delivering the ingredients.  The finale was the dive onto the burger by the top of the bun (me).  It was resounding win for the Northern Hemisphere, positive vibes for the Lions later this year?

We had a great night out and continued to make new friends late into the night.  The following morning it was presentation time.  We all had 2 minutes to introduce ourselves, our family and our study topic.  In the afternoon we took part in a scavenger hunt around the University of Guelph, taking photographs and solving puzzles.  We boarded the school bus that evening and headed to the Guelph Curling Club.

The curling was great fun.  We had some assistance from the members of the club who came to teach us the very skillful art of the gliding stones!  A big thanks to Clayton Robins and Blake Vince for their help and enthusiasm for the 60 or so curling novices setting foot onto the ice!  I was amazed at how effective the frantic brushing can make to the speed of the granite stones and ow little power was needed to send the stone on its way.

We were also treated to a lovely meal at the Curling Club before heading back to the hotel and getting ready for the start of the main event on Monday.  I took the role of Daily Lead for the Monday session so I had to organise people to introduce and thank our speakers.