The Last Continent

Australia is a really big country ... "No, it's a continent!" I was assured. Terry Pratchett must have concurred given his novel called ''The Last Continent" - full of allusions to a vegemite-like substance, strange animals, deserts & rough characters! 

My time in Australia was centered around two activities - & two distinct locations.The first was gaining insight Into the south eastern commercial fishing industry, staying largely in the coastal Victoria town of Lakes Entrance. The second was attending the Australasian & Pacific Extension Network conference, in Adelaide.



Arriving in Melbourne on the day of "the race that stops the nation" I was listening to the radio as Michelle Payne made history riding Prince of Penzance to glory. Much was made of her breathless but forthright post-race interview in which she gratefully acknowledged those who had supported her in an industry that gives less opportunity to females, and she  'frankly rebuffed' the 'chauvinist others'! The interview even made it to the conference, juxtaposed against a statement by a racing spokesman that there wasn't even any gender discrimination - this all in the context of seeking greater involvement of women in wool industry events. I thought having a daughter studying politics had already honed my radar on such things - but I felt even more challenged in my own work to better make genuine space for all the parties involved in dairying!



I must make mention of the magnificent seafood my host Wayne not only shared with, but cooked for, me!

The fishing industry has undergone a lot of change in the last twenty years - from unfettered harvesting to reduced numbers of licences, managed quotas and area restrictions. Add to that the reporting requirements necessary to achieve genuine co-management; fish stocks are a resource that can be renewable if respected by all that utilise them. The industry had taken a lot of flak for the impacts they've had on some specific fish resources (eg orange roughy) and on non-target  species, such as seabirds or dolphins. It was fascinating to speak with the CEO of one of the fishery associations about their approach to getting the industry to truly value their social licence as a privilege they must actively guard. I got thinking about whether we choose to see ourselves as victims of perception - or as partners in the evolution of our industry's. Noble thoughts, I know, while I clearly see the toll that that evolution can take on people's goals and their sense of identity ("I'm a fisherman" is an identity statement, not just a business statement!).

The consequence of all the fishing industry changes is a greatly reduced number of people in the industry - for example from 28 scallop boats to 6 in the area I visited! Admittedly the 6 will be bigger than the average boat back when there were 28, but this is still a big drop in participants. Size isn't everything, but it seems generally true that the bigger businesses have a greater 'buffering' capacity when it comes to coping with constraints - often that is via having a range of personnel with the skills and time to research facets of the coming changes and make provisions to accommodate them. 

on a fisherman's porch...

Compared to our dairy industry, fishing is much more diverse and hence fragmented - given that it is also much smaller this poses a real challenge in having a voice. There are good things happening nonetheless! The South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association have recently embarked on a joint Fisheries Improvement initiative with Coles (a large Australian supermarket chain) and WWF to assure customers that the product they are buying through this partnership has been sustainably fished - which includes guarding the future of the actual target fish and the wider impacts on non-target species. Click here for SETFIA-WWF-Coles Initiative.

I loved driving around what felt like big country, but really is just a small corner of the whole! I even had to stop in a small town to get a picture of the mother and baby koala that had been holding up traffic while they crossed the road to some tasty gums in a central traffic island...

There are roos in the paddock!

Many people I met have never been to New Zealand - I guess they have a lot of diverse options without ever leaving their own country. Those who had visited had mainly been to the South Island - of course they don't know what they were missing in the north!

Among the fishing industry people I met were two that were based in Melbourne. I was fortunate to stay in a gorgeous wee terrace house in Richmond, quite near the central city, while I was there. I even took a walk to the MCG.

Cricket developed into a bit of a theme - the Aussies I met were eager to move on from the Rugby of course. During and after the APEN conference there were plenty of opportunities taken to discuss how well Australia were doing against us. The APEN dinner was held at the recently refurbished Adelaide Oval, which was a treat.

Another treat was a couple of hours wandering the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide - what an asset for the city. I'll just stick to photos to describe aspects of this!

Pointed cricket conversations peaked when I travelled a wee bit north of Adelaide and visited Derek (one of my 'tour crew' from earlier in the year) and his family near Mallala. We had dinner in the local pub, where cricket is the main topic of both conversation and decor. Australia were racking up runs in Perth as we ate...

Sadly this location has since been on the news with the recent SA bushfires. The land was full of crops ripe for harvest - and crackling dry.

 I discovered that fire is one of the big risks when lentils are harvested - with fire fighting equipment included on the harvester and the neighbour's plough borrowed (this is a no-till farm!) and on standby in case a firebreak is needed in a hurry. As yet the cause of the recent fires is unknown, but the threat of the dragon was clearly real, and warranted. Click here for mapped information on the recent fires.

Back to the big country thought - I got a sense that people that have thrived in this place of space and drought - not to mention poisonous creatures - need to be 'big' themselves... being out there I felt more empathy for their culture (if not for their cricket gloating). And vegemite is okay too...

It was wonderful to close my travel by in some way closing part of the loop - Derek and I enjoyed reflecting on our earlier trip, catching up on where else we had each been  and some of the insight we had gleaned - and looked forward to future Nuffielders crossing our paths and staying in our homes. I was first to stay there and my first has since come and gone now too!

Apologies for the delay in getting this out - as we were warned, normal life can demand all of your focus once you return home! However 'normal' now includes Nuffield visits, mentoring a new Nuffield scholar, including bits and pieces of my experiences in conversations both at work and at home (without overdoing it of course), and thinking more widely about everything... my new normal has begun!

Culminating with Canada

Canada sure is a very big country!

Big lakes - that I couldn't see the other side of...

Big fields - all the better to grow crops efficiently ...

Big flood plains - waterways from several states / provinces are all headed for Lake Winnipeg over land contoured so flat that a place named "High Bluff" made me laugh out loud ...

Big sky - for magnificent sun rises and sunsets...
Big horizon - where the few interruptions to the distant curved skyline tend to be man-made - grain stores, factories, pylons...

Big pickups - even this long-legged person had to haul herself up into them...

Probably of most significance to this temperate-climate-dweller is the sense of "Big Seasons".
Being here in fall, for Thanks­giving & as crop harvesting was being concluded it was very clear that winter looms large. And why wouldn't it when the days grow short and temperatures remain further below zero than I have ever experienced?

The growing season is very condensed - sometimes made worse by water-logged soils delaying sowing or later activities - so 'when weather permits,'  activity is intense. The imperative behind the proverb ''make hay while the sun shines" makes lots of sense here!

In Ontario I met several farmers that are, or have been, growing tobacco.
This used to be a high return crop that grew well on the sandy soils hear Lake Erie that other crops didn't really flourish in. There was a marketing board that used a quota system and worked on behalf of the growers to secure good sales to the tobacco companies; one of the companies even had a processing plant in the region. A series of events & the changing attitude to smoking lead first to a shrinking and then a complete restructure of the industry. Some quota was 'retired' via a voluntary buyout in 2004, giving an exit option to some and hope for the ongoing value of the remaining quota to those that stayed.

In 2007 all remaining quota was compulsorily bought out (for less than earlier) and the marketing board disbanded. Buyers that sold quota could never supply tobacco again as the same entity - only a handful didn't sell. I got great insight into the turmoil of decision-making by some growers over that time. Tobacco requires a lot of specialised gear / infrastructure. Sell this? Hope one of the kids may want to grow in their own name? Do something completely different? Retire early?
On my travels I had the privilege to meet a Nuffield Canada scholar for 2016, Clair Doan. Via Twitter he shared the thought that because farming is an identity these decisions are not purely 'business- based' - they are emotional. One farming couple that took the second tobacco quota buyout, and are now leasing their land out, shared how acutely they felt the pain of deciding they would no longer "be farmers." This is something I understand.
When I first arrived in Ontario I mentioned to people that I would later go to Manitoba - and that along the way I was hoping to see at least the start of the fall colour display.

I was told I should see colour in Ontario, despite being a bit early, but in Manitoba all I was likely to see was a dog running away for 3 days! That proved to be a tad biased, though from my introductory 'big' thoughts you can see where they were coming from. I did see colour that intensified even during the week I was in Ontario - as for the dog running away?  All the dogs I met in Manitoba were too friendly for that!

Flooding was the limit I got furthest 'inside' in this province, even riding a quad bike over a river flats farm & seeing the eroded riverbank, 'forced' crop choices in a flood-curtailed growing season, changing pasture species, crossing / culvert damage - and I must mention the small lakes that used to be drainage paths until the local beavers got busy engineering dams!

The whole flooding issue relates not just to the vagaries of mother nature, but to choices about the whole watershed that must consider not only the flood-prone farmland, but the vulnerability of the city of Winnipeg, which sits at the confluence of two major rivers with huge catchments, the recreational requirements for an up-river dam, and drainage of land not just in Manitoba but in Saskatchewan and North Dakota.

A multi-issue, multi-stakeholder discussion of the highest order!
My final thoughts on Canada must go to the dairy industry.
Canada is a trade-oriented country, but with an acute desire not to be swamped by their North American neighbours. Indeed they have a similar ally-competitor relationship with the USA to ours with Australia!
The T.P.P. 'conclusion' was reached the day I arrived in Canada. Many dairy farmers here are very nervous of the ultimate implications on their hallowed supply management system.

Their controlled system has driven very high prices for milk quota but essentially it guarantees both a stable and 'high' milk price in return. While some were more pragmatic about Canada as a trading nation needing to be part of TPP and indeed happy that the dairy concessions are relatively small, I was especially circumspect when introduced as 'working with NZ dairy farmers' to a Canadian dairy farmer who happened to have a pitchfork in his hands at the time! No injuries were sustained & we managed a civil, maybe even relaxed, conversation. I was however impacted by the strength of feeling & sense of uncertainty that many have about it all.

So here is the end of this journey.
In about 10 days the new Nuffield NZ scholars will be announced. I think I have a few tips for them!

This is not quite the end - it's a bit like the final Lord of the Rings movie! In early November I will be in Australia to learn about limits on some of their commercial fishermen - and I'm excited to also be attending an extension conference. So you haven't quite heard the last of me yet...

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Winging across the Atlantic for the fourth time this year, I'm thinking of the Old Irish proverb "My the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back..."

And I've noticed the various reports & predictions regarding wind lately:  The buffeting the South Island has taken, the tornado / storm threats to both sides of the Atlantic and of course the expectation of the impact of El Nino this summer.
Wind and change. Strength and flexibility. Force and reaction...

Dairying and catchments have been the focus of my time in Ireland.
As with the other places I've been so far, the E.U. is a dominant presence. Here there is the clear recognition that the pro's have thus far outweighed the cons. 

The Catchment Programme I was introduced to at Timoleague in West Cork, and saw more of at the Catchment Science Conference (at which I was able to present), is an intensive monitoring exercise being carried out in 6 catchments through the country. It is both driven and partially funded by the EU as part of its Water Framework Directive. In comparison to the earlier Nitrates Directive, which is process (rules) oriented, this is very results driven. There is the potential in a given catchment for farmers to be compliant with the nitrates rules, but for the water quality to fail to meet its target. Back to my wind thought earlier - the Water Framework Directive may well blow harder on land users than  the earlier legislation did. This raises the need for all contributors to water quality to be aware of the real impact of their actions / choices / management on the environment.

How aware am I, for example, as someone who lives in Rotorua of the real impact of my water use choices on the lake? Focusing our minds on real effects not just on compliance would be transformational. Hmmm. I'm having a Conscience Moment about all manner of things right now!
Back to Ireland!
With a sample of highlights in brackets, I managed to take in quite a circuit: 
* west & north from Dublin to Galway (land of endless stone wall fences),

* back down through the centre (pausing in Loise at the ploughing match - cf. our Natitonal Fieldays),
* south to West Cork (where I stayed at my friend Maire's and and ventured around the county to catchments, cows and co-ops - and castles!),

*  up to the Warm South-east of Wexford (full on catchment conversations),

* back to the centre to Loise & Kilkenny (discussion group farmers),

* completing the second loop in Dublin (government and history - can you guess who I'm beside in the below photo?)

* adding a "weekend bubble" up to Bru na Boine in Meath (visiting the famous stone age passage tomb of  Newgrange, which predates the Great Pyramids),

* completing yet another loop by taking the country roads back to Brian & Becky Rushe's , where I had been welcomed on my first night. Coincidentally I watched two momentous rugby games there, a fortnight apart - SA vs Japan and Aus vs England... Needless to say the RWC has gotten a mention with most of the people I've met!

The dairy industry is palpably ready to blossom. Liberated from the winter of milk quotas earlier this year Irish dairy farmers are enjoying a warm spring breeze.  Many have seized the opportunity to add cows, land, feed... However, expansion of an operation beyond the traditional family boundary is usually only temporary, & that often very short term. There are all manner of leases and even land use swaps in the pursuit of efficient growth. It does make it difficult to design and implement a whole farm setup. Other traditions such as sole operator structures, desire for beef calves from the dairy herd and benchmarking on litres (not solids, despite this now being the payment basis) also make it harder to think outside the square. However, Irish agriculture has a supportive government, great research programmes and an excellent advisory service. Ireland grows good quality pasture all summer and there are a great number of excellent pasture managers.

There is an exciting time ahead for those willing to ask the right questions & to challenge the status quo... who act while thinking about the real impacts of their farm management and tell their and their industry's story well.
I've just reread this - I'm not intending to sound like the outsider-know-it-all. In fact I think there are many parallels to home...
Canada next, where as an aside I'm hoping to catch some good autumn colour - it was just starting in Ireland!

French Connection

This central area of France is confirmed Charolais country

Friday as I drove back to Baptiste's farm from the nearby city of Moulins, I felt a pang of sadness that this was my last day in France.

In the old centre of Moulins

View across the River Allier to Moulins

Chateau de Sagonne, one of the nice old buildings I saw along the road!

Between the conference & battlefield tour earlier in the year, my week in Brittany and these last few days in the centre of France, I feel that, incomplete as it must be, I have some insight into and empathy for the farmers in this place.
Brittany grows between half & three quarters the pasture we do, with zero for 2 months of winter & susceptibility to summer drought.

Heifer block with train bridge - also highway and village behind me!

Normande cows for organic milk/cheese production

Calves being reared to 9 months on nurse cows

Cross-bred cows on very low allowable nitrogen use farm

Non-farmers are both close at hand and en-masse. While this block of local consumers is an advantage to those adventurous farmers who choose to direct market or produce some form of higher value product (I had the opportunity to meet a few), those urban neighbours have preferences that are not always farmer-friendly. Other dairy farmers elect a low-cost system, emulating in part a NZ style, but these are few and certainly little understood by the farming peers that prefer to leave many questions unasked.
Society is far more socialist than ours & with a working week of 35 hours & annual leave of five weeks, farm work is not a preferred choice for most. Tax & social security payments are hefty for profitable businesses.

Farm shop direct marketing organic farm products

Hay drying, storing and feeding facility... makes the cheese from the Normande herd better!

One of Brittany's many tidal estuaries 

There are 3 farmers' unions here! One person explained there is a 'right-aligned' group, a 'left-aligned' and a 'generally-protesting-about-everything-group'. Simplistic as the explanation may be, it nonetheless describes a fractured farming politics landscape. I even got to experience the indirect impact of a farmer demonstration... leaving the Brittany equivalent of "National Fieldays meets the Royal Show" on Wednesday, having got to my car at around 5:15pm, I finally arrived at my host's place about 30km away some 3.5 hours later... It turns out the cars were unable to exit carpark B because of the tractors from farmers from the left aligned group blocking a major, key roundabout. Some creative folk had rolled a rock aside allowing some vehicles (mine included) slow egress via another, also full, carpark! Fortunately, my hosts for the evening had also been at the show... Alain accompanied me so we passed the time quite amiably!

Top of Trevarn's heifer block - lovely view, but very summer-dry

I had only 3 hosts for my 10 days in France, spending a whole week at Gaec Trevarn (meaning "Trevarn Farm") in the region of Finistère in Brittany. It was reviving to spend that long in one place, after a week away from Amsterdam that gave me just 4 nights at home with my family, the balance of the time spent in airports or aeroplanes!

Melting raclette cheese for our potatoes - yum!

My host Oivier had planned an interesting array of visits including a conservation association, two diverse pig farmers, several dairy farms (incuding an open day at the local research farm), local farm 'supermarket' and the locally originated corporate version and even a discussion group!

Discussion group lunch - pot-luck, BYO plates etc

The Celtic origins of Brittany are evident in the markings on the churches, headstones and many wayside crosses/shrines. Also the roadsigns have place names in both French and Breton.
Fitting that my next destination shares a similar heritage... Ireland!