Lambing Live at Overbury Farms 14th April

Lambing is here again as as last year we are hosting our annual 'Lambing Live' Event on the 14th April.  It will be great to see lots of people here again as in previous years, there will be so much going on.  The tractor and trailer rides will be leaving the Village Hall in Overbury from 10.00, with the final one leaving at 3pm.  The last one leaves Park Farm to return to the village hall at 4pm so you can spend as much, or as little time in the pens as you like.  Up at Park Farm you will also find our game-keepering team of Paul, Tom and Rod, showing and demonstrating how the conservation and shooting aspects of the farm and hill management work very well together.  Our friends from Countrywide Farmers will also be there with some exciting activities for the younger potential shepherds.

There will be displays and Overbury Lamb Casserole available to buy at the village hall; with proceeds going towards the renovation of the village hall kitchen, a worthy cause.  We only charge adults £5 per person and accompanied children go for free, to attend the sheep sheds by tractor ride.  We must advise that for health and safety reasons we do not allow pregnant ladies to attend the sheep sheds.  For the most up to date information please keep an eye on our Overbury Farms Website or for regular updates you can follow No1FarmerJake on twitter.  Our FaceBook page will also carry information about the event and what you can expect.

With the terrible effect the weather has had on many livestock farms across the north of the country we are supporting the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution with collection boxes.  Any donations will be gratefully received and passed on the the charity to use in helping many struggling farmers who have lost many sheep, lambs and cattle in the snow.  I am looking forward to meeting you all at Park Farm, stay tuned all this week for more details of what you can expect to see and do.

Canadian Wheat and Maple Syrup

After the Grain Farmers of Ontario March classic I met up with Steve Twynstra who owns a very impressive cash cropping business near Ailsa Craig, situated about 25 minutes drive North West of London Ontario.  Steve's business revolves around soybeans, corn and wheat and is spread over quite a large area surrounding London.  

I met Steve at the conference before I hired a car and headed out to meet him at the farm.  The workshop and office where we met were immaculate as was every piece of machinery I could see.  The tractors were polished clean, all the machinery goes through a very thorough process in the workshop through the winter period.  Steve also had 3 lorry units that he uses to haul, grain and fertiliser at certain times of the year.  The size of the equipment was very impressive as well.  A cultivator, similar to a germinator, with tines and rollers with levelling bars was tucked away and was 50' wide (15.25m).

In the last couple of years Steve had put up some very impressive on farm round silo's to hold the crop grown on the farm.  Steve has been using variable rate technology since the mid 1990's and has done a lot of research work on using yield maps to create the variable rate plans.  

After a lovely dinner cooked by Mrs Twystra (Dianne), Steve and I headed out in the snow in the truck to a neighbours farm.  Here the group meet up once a month to have a general agricultural discussion.  The group started as a marketing group and over time it has morphed into more of a general discussion usually with external speakers in attendance.  This is where I met up with Peter Johnson again and so we talked wheat for the next couple of hours.  I also had a few slides about being a LEAF Demonstration farm so I showed those off as well.  

The farm hosting the event also produced maple syrup form the maple trees on the farm.  About 100 acres of trees are tapped each year to produce the sap.  The sap only rises at certain times and needs a specific temperature pattern to get it going.  A cold frosty night should be followed by a warmer day.  The sap is collected and reduced down using wood fires.  The final process uses gas heat so that more control of the temperature can be obtained.  The native Indian population in Canada thought the first settlers how to do this using hollowed out trees filled with sap and then dropping hot fire stones in to remove the water and concentrate the syrup.  The process in reduced by a value of 40.  i.e. 40L of sap is required to make 1L of Maple Syrup!

The darkness of the syrup depicts the different amount of flavour.  The darker the colour the more intense the taste.  Different flavours occur during different times of the season, depending on how the sap rises.  It was a fascinating end to another great day.  The next I was on the road, getting up at 3.30 for the 7 hour, 400 mile drive East and then North to Ottawa, Canada's capital city, to meet up with my wife Andrea and daughter Jorja.

Onwards into Canadian Agriculture

Monday and Tuesday I was very lucky to be included in the Grain Farmers of Ontario March classic.  An event aimed at bring the latest information and some great comedy to grain producers in the region. The event also hosted a trade show with over 50 exhibits from soil sampling to crop breeding and husbandry.  I was met by Crosby Devitt, a Canadian Nuffield Scholar who works for the GFO and who put me in touch with the organisation. The event was top class with speakers covering a range of subjects, but not just agricultural.  I was very impressed to hear stories from Ron MacLean, who hosts a TV show in Canada called 'Hockey Night in Canada'.  As you can imagine he is quite a celebrity and although I haven't seen the TV show the recollection's and stories were very amusing indeed.

 It was great to see support from the catering staff who were serving food and drink through the day.  I particularly like this shirt that states quite clearly the benefits of having a vibrant farming industry on your doorstep, producing quality home grown food.

I was also very lucky to be invited to the evening dinner banquet where I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with the Premier of Ontario and the Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, Kathleen Wynne.  Kathleen had only been in the position for just about a month when I met her; but she realised the importance of agriculture to the economy of the Province, and so took on the Minister of Agriculture role as well.  We'll see how she gets on but made quite an impression on the evening walking round the tables of farmers introducing herself and listening to what they have to say.  Our politicians could learn a lot!  I met lots of interesting people over the two days including Barry Senft the CEO of the Grain farmers on Ontario who spoke to us during the first day of meetings at the CSC.  I also met Peter Johnson who is the Provincial Cereal Specialist and we had a great conversation about growing bigger yields of wheat.  I actually met up with Pete the following day at a local event, more to follow.  You can follow Pete on twitter well worth a look!

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 Saturday - Putting it All Together

The final part of the conference was arguably the best.  We were split into 6 groups to work together on a presentation for the other groups.  We were given two hours to work out a plan; in our case, "Telling the Story of Agriculture", then we had a 15minute presentation and a 10 minute grilling from everyone else.  We looked at the voice that agriculture has in the world, from Facebook groups promoting agriculture to those in opposition and it really was frightening the balance of opposition to agriculture.  We looked at Twitter, at YouTube and how we as scholars can help influence the positive side of our great industry.  What amazed me was that all the scholars are having the same thoughts and issues, no matter where they come from in the world.  The rural population is in decline, the age of our farmers is increasing and our voice is getting lost in the general 'noise' of our modern world.  It's not all doom and gloom though there are some beacons shining in the darkness telling our side of the story.  We need to do more of it, maybe with one international agriculture brand? It was a very good finale to the Conference and one that inspired a very good 'take home' message to us all.  Some were really shocked at the statistics.......

The evening was spent in the Skylon Tower over looking the Niagara falls where we all mulled over the information we had taken in during the week.  I was amazed at how quickly the week had gone, spent with a really tremendous group of friends.  Friendships that will last a life time even though we've only just met.  Friendships that will be built on over time, meeting up around the world, during our individual studies and long into the future.

The view form the tower was a stunning setting for the final talk of the week from Steve Larocque who owns a company called Beyond Agronomy.  Steve was a Nuffield Scholar from 2008 and manages over 30,000 acres in Alberta.  Steve has taken his Nuffield experience to the highest level, looking after a wide range of crops, including wheat, barley, canola, beans, lentils and peas, as well as setting up his own farming business.  He is a huge advocate of Controlled Traffic Farming and looking after the soil at all times.  It's a system that has the greatest resilience to climate change and one that we need to be looking into more and more in the UK.  It will be a nice side line as part of my 20:20 project!  

Steve gave us an example of one of his spring barley fields with 650 ears/m2 with 60 kernels/ear which when harvested yield 12T/Ha.  Now that is very impressive and a target to aim for and one that needs more investigation.  What can I learn for the UK situation?

Steve left us with a couple of quotes; one I especially like is from Lloyd Alexander, an America author, he said; "we learn more from looking for the answer to the question and not finding it, than we do from learning the answer itself".  I guess this sums up my Nuffield adventure so far.......

Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference - Friday The Global Environment

Up bright and early on Friday morning we headed out to VineTech Canada to meet Wes Wiens.  Wes runs a great business producing vine stock for other vineyards to plant.  He has about 20 acres with over 1.7 million vine plants growing at at any one time. Usual vineyard planting will be about 1361/acre.  There were two main things I took away from our visit to Wes's farm, firstly the backbone of his business is made on producing quality vines.  These varieties are sourced from around the world, including Germany, France and the US.  He ships vines to the main wine producing areas in Canada namely, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario.  The vines are puzzle cut and then grafted onto rootstock before being planted out in the nursery usually for a year.  Wes sells most of the vines having been grown on under his control so there is less chance of them failing in the first year, again more work but quality ensured.  The second memory was how Wes looked after the 45 foreign workers employed during the busiest time of year.  Birthdays are recognised; and as many of the workers are foreign (Mexico and Bulgaria mainly), they are also encouraged to learn to read and write.

After a short bus ride we headed off around the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre which is a not for profit institute. A substantial amount of money is raised through commercial research and government funding. One of the major research projects currently underway is to increase the winter hardiness of roses 'out west'.  Another project that has born fruit was developing a new apple with funding generated through the Ontario Apple Growers.  The centre has a trained panel of tasters to have the ability to try out and benchmark new flavours, which meets up a couple of times a week.

Here's Steve Wilkins from New Zealand at the Vineland Research Institute.

The roses in the breeding programme that we saw were in greenhouses being marked with different tags depending on their genetics and the characteristics that were being identified. It is hoped that a new rose might be commercially available in 2018, which is a long time to wait for a winter hardy rose bush.

After lunch we had a great talk by Andrew Novakovi on the United States Farm Bill.  The farm bill was put in place as a support mechanism for farmers many years ago and is amended every 5 to 7 years.  The first Farm Bill was started by President Roosevelt following the stock market crash of 1929, at a time of the dust bowls in the mid west.  It's role was to set out the the responsibility of the government.  The farm bill looks after, wheat, corn (maize), grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, rice, oilseeds, soybeans, sugar and peanuts.  The bill also spends money on nutrition, commodities and conservation.

Another aspect of the farm bill is for crop insurance where growers pay an area insurance policy.  This means that the income from the crop is secured so if your state goes into drought, then you are eligible to claim the value of insured crop.  This year between $20-$50 billion were paid out to US farmers due to the drought conditions! The US government knows that this level of subsidy payments can't continue but the farmers have a very strong voice when it comes to lobbying the politicians.  It will be interesting to see where the next negotiations go and how much money is available.

Jay Nutting was up after Andrew to talk about the role of the lobby in politics.  Jay is an Eisenhower Fellow a similar sort of scheme to Nuffield. Putting a point across is something we as industry need to do more of, no-one is going to do it for us.  Making local connections and being the 'go to' person who is straight forward and knowledgeable is what we, as Nuffield scholars need to do in our own communities and try to have influence over our own political masters.

Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference - Thursday 'Evolving for and Urban Setting'

Thursday morning arrived way too soon.  Although the start was early everyone was up and ready to go.  We had to check out of the Guelph Delta hotel and board the bus by 8am.  Our first stop was Cranston Farms, a herd of 70 cows or so managed and owned by Doug and his wife.  The cows are housed all year round in a great light and airy barn. These buildings called 'Coverall's' a strong plastic type of material stretched over a aluminium or steel frame.  These were invented to withstand tornado's so that the fabric rips off in the wind.  A building this big can be re-roofed in a matter of hours!

The bedding was a unique mix of dry wall (I think the same sort of material as plasterboard) and dung. As the mixture builds up; being cultivated everyday, it composts down before being removed from the building.  The final 4' against the back wall is then spread out with a good supply of bacteria to start off the composting process again.  Housing cows all the time is a very contentious issue in the UK, but these cows were very happy and is standard practise here in Canada.  Everything the cows need is provided, including a vet, who happened to be on site, pregnancy testing the cows.  The ration was a complete TMR (total mixed ration) with maize, flax, soya and cotton, shown below.

After this we boarded to coach and headed down to VG Meats at Simco.  This was a very interested business taking cattle from their farm and taking them through the processing system themselves to the customer.  It is a family run business with all the brother being involved.  The cattle are mainly Angus crosses, calving in May.  The theory of the business is quality, it's not low cost at all, but it seems to work.  The meat is taste tested with the best tasting carcases being sold to high end restaurants in Toronto.  The counter cut meat is hung for 21 days, but there is a maturing cabinet in the shop where customers can custom age their own meat, there was some in the hanging for up to 90 days!

The business is split 50:50 between retail and wholesale beef, with some lamb, pork and poultry in the shop as well, although the quantity of these is very small.  No hormones are used in this beef as it affects the eating quality, making it less tender.  It was a very interesting system, being fully integrated from the cattle feed lots right through to the end user.

After lunch the group split, heading in two directions to tow different winery's.  We headed out to Megalomanic wines on the Niagara Peninsular.  there we were met buy the very inspirational Sue-Ann Staff, who acts as a consultant and the main wine maker.  Sue-Ann, a fifth generation wine maker and Ontario's wine maker of the year in 2002, she also has her own winery Staff Wines  The passion that Sue-Ann had for the subject was incredible.  It was a lovely afternoon so we headed out to look at some vines being pruned.

The scenery was warm and stunning with lines of vines criss-crossing the fields. The area has a unique climate caused by lake Ontario keeping the very cold weather at bay, (still gets to -20 degrees C) but critically not much colder so the vines can survive.  In fact there is a new wine launched a few years ago called 'Ice Wine' that is created from grapes that are harvested when frozen.  People are employed to harvest the frozen bunches of grapes, in temperatures as low as -10! Grape vines yield anywhere between 1.5t/ha - 4t/ha and you need about 2x2m of leaf to create 1kg of grapes.  The story continued underground, a great way to avoid all the planning issues (- note to self), where the fermentation and creation takes place.

We tasted three wines, just a little taster, which was a really great fun.  I learnt how to hold the glass (by the stem) then swirl the wine in the glass before inhaling the aroma.  Then take a mouthful, not too little (good news) and swash around the mouth exposing the sensors on the tongue to the very unique flavours, then swallow!

It really was a great visit, very well hosted.  What was inspiring was the passion, knowledge and drive that Sue-Ann has for the subject, it is something that the whole group was very impressed with.  We loaded up and headed to the honeymoon capital of the world - Niagara Falls