Japan Final Days

8 August 2013

Today marks the final appointment of my Nuffield adventure and thank you to Kumi Ito of ALIC and Kate Neath of MLA, who joined me today in venturing north into the Tsukuba prefecture to visit Tukuba Kimura Farms (TKF), a business just commencing its CI journey.

TKF produce about 1000kg of packed, mixed lettuce leaf and an assortment of herbs, daily for sale in Tokyo's restaurants, shopping centres and wholesale markets. Based on a biological production model, plants are grown in open fields and hot houses across 3 prefectures in Japan and packed at Tsukuba.

50 employees work around the clock to ensure all the packed fresh produce is available for distribution by 12 noon each day and have commenced using some of the base level TPS methods to stream line their business.  To date operational improvements have been achieved by using  the following tools;

Waste walking the packing line

Standard working procedures

Asset utilisation reviews, &

Weekly cross functional management meetings.

TKF have along way to go in achieving their objective of a 3 fold increase in production within 5 years, but have commenced this journey with the right knowledge gained form the TPS audit, best of luck.

Thank you to everyone I have meet and discussed TPS with, to the team at Wynns for covering me during this sabbatical, to TWE for the opportunity and support for this scholarship and mostly to my family for allowing me to travel, for accepting the high and lows of the past 2 years and for growing up so much while I have been away. 

Wow what a journey, Cheers.

Japan August 2013

5 August

UD Trucks a division of Volvo International

Todays visit focused on pure manufacturing and the ways CI has evolved in the Japanese workplace. UD operate on a workplace 1 hour north of Tokyo on 400ha of factory space and represent 12% of all truck sales in Japan.  3700 employees work on the site and are amongst 9000 nation wide.

Over 1000 model types of trucks are available and purchasing orders are triggers for build operations, right through from engine construction to fabrication of chassis and cabins.

UD rely heavily on 2 CI principals to achieve less than 2% rework;

 Poka-Yoka-: mistake proofing devices to assist employees to complete the value adding task.

Standard Work-:specific work descriptions detailing cycle time, takt time, work sequence and inventory parts required.

6August

Toyota

The birth place of CI or Toyota Production System (TPS).  Unfortunately photos are not allowed and lone visitors are restricted to where they can travel/talk to.

The two pillars we were presented as the key to Toyota success are;

Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing, to create the product at the correct time in the correct amount to meet the customers needs., once an order has been placed and confirmed, thus removing Muda (waste) and surplus inventory. 

Jidoka: the principal that production line must be stopped if the operator is not achieving 100% quality of value during their specific task.

Jidoka works by empowering the  operator to identify the error, plan to rectify within station takt time, if unable notifies supervisor, they then have a designated time to address, if not achieved line will be stopped until error has been rectified. This practices ensures 100% quality of product makes it to the end station.

Toyota are now listed as the largest car manufacturer in the world and boost that 97% of their vehicles can be recycled back into manufacturing. A very impressive tour even without close access to the CI tools they have been using.

7 August

 Tsukiji Market, Tokyo

230ha of open cry auctioning system for fish and vegetables, destined for the Tokyo population.  An amazing place with no CI or safety foundations evident, quite surprising. 

Tsukiji is famous for its live tuna sales and turns over   $300million yen/day in sales, supports 30,000 employees, moves 7500 tonnes of produce in 24 hours and contributes to an estimated 7.8 billion yen in sales/day for fish&vegetables across Tokyo's 6 markets.

An amazing market space and such a contrary to the organised workplaces visited.

Italy August 2013

After some quality family time with Suse, the scholarship travels have recommenced, with a focused look at Italian viticulture.

29 July

Alessandro Ceretto, Ceretto Wines, Barolo

100 ha vineyard with 4 winery with 4 DCOG regions, very expensive overheads to secure the right to label wines DCOG (appellation). Alessandro is the third generation viticulturist at this Barole House and is very passionate about organics and bio-dynamic farming. During development stages no soil tillage occurs, thus preserving the soil micro-fauna.

The Italians to are dealing with high alcohol wines with changes in their canopy management techniques, which involves less trimming and  retention of more leaf at harvest, contrary to some of the French thinking.

Apart from copper and sulphur, Alessandro uses no pesticides and manages weeds undervine with slashers. 

30 July

Alberto Cordero, Cordero Montezemolo, La Morra

19th generation land manager,  on the same site his fore founders settled 700 years ago.  Wine production started in the 1850 and has continued unbroken to this day. The marriage of old a new technology is very evident with raw livestock manure and natural yeasts being used across the vineyard and winery, whilst a robotic lawn mower tends to the lawns surrounding the winery.   

31 July 

Francesco & Ivano Reali, Castello Gabbiano, San Casciano

170ha vineyard, 50% leased and 10% being redeveloped. Records indicate wine was grown on the estate as far back as 1464, however unfortunately museum wines only date back  20 years.

Bud grafting during the past season has been very successful, with strike rates of 98% being achieved.  This grafting appears popular with many growers chip bud grafting the desired clones onto rootstocks that have been in the ground for 12 months, rather than planting a grafted dormant vine.

Heavy reliance on large track working equipment, with 6 dozers & excavators working across 10Ha of vineyard redevelopment, removing rock.  A costly exercise!

Thank you to the hosts of this leg of the journey a very interesting an engaging few days looking at Italian viticulture.  Onto Japan for the final leg of the trip where I hope to visit as many businesses practicing CI as possible.

France 8th and 9th July

Braud New Holland, Philippe Boisseau

The opportunities continue to happen with the Nuffield Scholarship, with a  2 day internship at Braud's Coex manufacturing plant in the XX district.  During the past two days the level of detail of Brauds process has been presented and where they are achieving improvement from their CI  program, has been impressive.

Braud delivered its first self propelled harvester to the French market in 1975, in 1980 the noria bucket system was developed, in 2002 the first de-stemmer was invented and in 2010 the refinement of the de-stemmer to remove other MOG was presented to the market.  As a multiple SITEVI award winner, they have delivered some very impressive technologies to the market.

In 1984 Braud was purchased by Fiat Agri, which was later purchased by Case New Holland.  Prior to these buy outs, Bruad was a family business.  It still retains the culture of a family business, which is accredited to the staff involvement in the development of the harvesters.

Some KPI's around the grape harvester manufacture at Braud, Coex

ISO 9001,14001 & 18001 accredited, requiring every 10th unit to be QA tested for 8 hours, across 1000 elements of measure

World Class Manufacturing WCM implemented in 2008

350/mach/pa at a takt time of 4hours/mach

360 man hours/machine

220 people on Coex site

3000 individual parts/mach

15000 individual parts held for production of 450 different model options

3000 tn of steel, 3.5tn of weld & 75 tn of paint used annually

Some of the high level achievements attributed to their CI approach are;

(1) spaghetti analysis of welding station measured 285meters of wasted motion in each harvester frame, by measuring and re-designing station layout able to reduce takt time by 50%

(2) repeatable  "one point lessons" across tractor build line has delivered consistent 6% reduction in takt time per harvester

(3) reduction in supplier delivery time deviation from plan, May 2013 recorded 31% of deliveries out side plan variance, 13% late & 18% early, below trend line and KPI of 35% of all deliveries.

Some Opportunities for Improvement OFI, observed and discussed;

(1) incorporation of  external component suppliers eg auto washing, into problem resolution practices

(2) un-level production expectations for welding sections

(3) standard work practice in harvester head assembly line

(4) removal of stock from shopping aisles that are required for different models

(5) clipping of low hanging waste opportunities eg nuts,bolts,oil, filters, time.

A very education and informative two days, thanks to Phillip and the crew for spending the time with me.  Merci 

Germany

1 July 2013

Johannes Krutten, Clemens

The German leg of my CI journey started off with a magnificent meal with Johannes in the town of Wolf on the Mosell river.  The beauty of a fast following river, terraced vineyards, the spring scent and fine Riesling will not be missed on this Cabernet drinker.

Clemens is a family owned business, specialising in vineyard canopy manipulation equipment and employing 130 people in their small production site in Wittlich.  Their ability to manage and produce over 3000 single units per annum, that require over 13,000 individual parts, is a testament to the attention to detail this business exemplifies. Whilst it was not clearly evident CI or Lean manufacturing principals were being consciously practiced, the very nature of the workshop hygiene, the parts order and the process flow of trimmer manufacture, had all the signs of efficient Lean adoption.

A great day, thank you Johannes.

2nd July 2013

Christoph Klien & Carsten Muller,ERO

Again two wonderful hosts who work for another family business, specialising in the manufacturing of grape harvesters, trimmers and leaf pluckers.  Carsten was kind enough to walk the line with me, where we saw an impressive mature manufacturing organisation who know where their waste is and how the are providing differentiation of their product.  The ERO harvester will be the first on the market with de stemming and crushing capabilities, on board. This combination can have significant impact on the volume of MOG carted to wineries and improve transport options.

With a turnover of 20 million euro plus and a philosophy "if you bought a harvester from us, we can supply parts, no matter what age" ERO are destined to achieve their target growth of 80 harvesters per year, by 2023.

Best of luck boys we look forward to seeing the launch of ERO harvesters in 2013 at the Australian Wine Outlook Conference in Sydney. 

3rd July 

Wolfgang Krapp, Rebschule Krapp

A serious contractor in Germany, with 4 harvesters, 60 Ha of his own to manage, director of largest co-operative in region and a nursery providing over 1 million plants across the EU, this guy is very busy!!

Take home message: SO4 rootstock best in this environment, 5BB & Paulson to vigorous, 161/14 & 3309 to weak a stock.  Best RR clone 239.

4th July

Margaret Hetterich & Florian Weste, John Deere Mannheim

An amazing day watching a small portion of the hundreds of tractors built by John Deere at Mannheim. Margaret was a superb host, who's knowledge of drive train mechanics and differential splits, blew me away, I later learned she is the wife a JD Vice President, who has Deere blood in his veins.

JD pride themselves on lean manufacturing and six sigma deep dives.  Some impressive stats to ponder: takt time per tractor 3.3 minutes, 5 million euro spent per day on R&D, 67 000 employees globally, 36.15 Billion USD turnover, over 9000 part numbers per tractor, QA testing every tenth unit.

JD approach Lean/CI/Six Sigma with the adage " nothing is a precious as time" so lets not waste a precious minute.  The take home message for CI practitioners: Lean is efficiency gains, Six Sigma is for effectiveness gains and CI is for improvement gains from small practices.

The Germany adventure was closed with some fine food and vista with Margaret, Rhienard & Hans on the Wine Trail in Bad Durkheim. A great afternoon and evening that will be remembered for along time, thank you.

UK CI Update

Due to some technical issues posts will be on a country basis and with out photo's.

24 June
Aimia Foods, Merseyside

Thank you to Colin Watts, Black belt Six Sigma, I had a very informative day understanding how Aimia had introduced the CI principals and how they were measuring their performance.

Aimia commenced their journey in 1998 with a kiazan trip to Japan and embarked on Six Sigma approaches in 2009.  They have completed cross divisional training to 75% of staff and have yellow belt coaches on each production line.  Initial focus was on tooling change over times, 5S, waste walks and standard work practices.  Subsequent to these skills they have since introduced Hoishin business planning, standard VM boards and 6S audit tools (the 6th question being safety).

This business is a very mature site with highly embedded CI practices across the entire businesses and very much willing to question every business decision with data, but to also consider the following: "What are we here for & how do we make it better, be that product,life/work balance & profitability" 

25 June
ASDA Foods, Leeds

Chris Brown was able to find time to discuss the green delivery model ASDA are using in their distribution across the UK.  ASDA are hoping to improve their market share of the 19 million shoppers/week in the UK, above 15%, by rolling out virtual stores and forming strong alliances with producers.

The key messages Chris provided are;
# origin of product labelling super important
# feedback across the entire supply chain vital for mutually successful relationships
# seasonal supply constraints must be removed
# walk the supply chain regularly
# JV opportunities areavailable

26 June
Butlers Cheese
Gill Hill

A family business specialising in cheeses for M&S and certain Tesco stores, who have only just commenced on the CI journey.  Gill key focus is to ensure transparency exists between  business objectives and employee actions.

Travel Update

4 July
Bad Durkheim
Due to technical issues posts have been few and far between, I hope to rectify this in the coming days.

Israel

Thank you to the team at Netafim Australia and Israel for hosting my visit and opening my mind to the possibilities of how water can transform such an arid part of the globe into a food basket for the northern hemisphere.

Israel Stats

Area:20,000 sq km

Population:8 million

Religion: complicated

Rainfall: 600mm north, 100mm south

Drinking water: Sea of Gallilie, Jordon River and the aquifer @ 300m deep

Agricultural water: 80% of food production grown on class B recycled water

Sectors: Dates, wine & table grapes, cereals, corn, cotton, vegetables, chicken, nomadic goat & mutton

Tuesday 18 June: Yiftach Kibbutz, Tiberias & Golon Heights

Drip irrigation was patented in 1967 out of the necessity to conserve water in the Hatzerimm region, where only 100mm of rain falls and extremely high ET occurs.

Across the globe drip irrigation is now present in all agricultural regions, both in developing and developed nations, it contributes to a reduction in water use, evaporation and the delivery of macro and micro nutrients to plants.  These conditions have seen crop yields increase by 100% in many regions, delivering on the ethos "grow more:with less".

Many Israeli businesses model their operations around the Kibbutz  which fundamentally delivers socialism ideals to members of the kibbutz. Members will work for a very nominal wage, no matter what role within the kibbutz business CEO or labourer, they are provided access to meals, accommodation, education, and medical assistance. In return members will receive their weekly allowance and access to opportunities when the need arrises.  One researcher we meet had moved from Argentina, was reviewed for 2 years, admitted to the kibbutz and now has access to educate his children, fly home when required, but shares communal dinning and vehicles, and cannot purchase a tv or house.  Some might describe these ideals as blissful, far from the capitalist world I come from. 

 

Visiting regions like the Golon Heights, Gaza, Jericho and discussing the political unrest with the Palestinians, HesBalah, Egypt and Syria has given me such a better understanding of why these conflicts occur and how passionate everyone is.  To be so close to the regions of conflict was eery, but not once did we feel unsafe. 

Wednesday 19 June: Magai Kabutz & Lachish region

Ziv Charitt & Dr Yishay Natzer

Today was a very quick lesson in plant physiology, water capillary action and nutrient translocation within grape vines.  I learnt of many new tools to measure plant water status, nutrient accumulation and leaf area capacities, which I am sure many in the academic world are very familiar with.

Some ideas and tools discussed were;

Dendrometer, for trunk diameter logging

Xylem tube manipulation, for managing water uptake across the season

Leaf Area Index & ETC, for prescriptive water scheduling

Stomata Conductivity, night time logging of activity and its impact on plant water status

Thermal imagery, for crop yield estimation

Low Flow drip irrigation, increased lateral water movement to improve efficiency of water applied

Thursday 20 June: Binyamin region & Jerusalem

The impact of visiting a region that is for ever in the news for conflict, the West Bank, brings a great deal of understanding of why they are fighting so hard for this land.  Even tho there is virtually no grass, no water, no old buildings they are both passionate about settling this arid land.

Jerusalem does have many old buildings, heaps of history and real relevance of the beginning of christianity and yet 4 religions can co-exist fairly civilly.  This day was all about the history of Jesus pilgrimage across the Jordan desert, the scriptures of early civilisation and the conquests of the Roman Empire.  I am going to let pictures tell the story, because I cannot do justice to the lessons I have learnt.

Friday & Saturday: Jerusalem & Massada

Sunday 23 June: Hatzerim Kibbutz

The diversity of perennial and annual crops is amazing, all grown under irrigation using recycled water.  Much of the countries food is grown locally and when you look at the diversity and mix of food groups served daily, they do a wonderful job.

Israel is one of the wonders of this globe and a place everyone should try and visit, if not for the religious significancy but for the history of modern society.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Final Countdown

12 June 2013

As time draws closer to departure (Sunday 16 June), I am beginning to appreciate the roller coaster ride Nuffield offers any scholar.  From the highs of new countries and new people to the lows of leaving family behind, it is all part of the Nuffield expirence.

So on sunday Matt Loyd, Netafim, and I depart for Israel, we will be spending a solid week looking at irrigation and water management systems.  I then head for the UK, Germany and France, where I will be looking at CI management in the workplace, viticultural innovation and grapegrowing practices in some of the most influential grape regions of the globe.

I will finish this adventure with a quick viti focused visit to Italy and then round off my CI observations with a hard look at how the Japanese use CI in their daily work places and how it is embedded in their culture.

Sincere thanks to the GWRDC for this opportunity, Wynns Coonawarra Estate for allowing me to undertake this scholarship and to Suse, Georgie, Lucy, Jack and Molly for keeping the home fires burning and happy.

Please follow the activity, I will try and keep it sharp and usefull.

Ooo Roo

Who have we meet in the last few days

Canberra
John Tuckwell, Senior Advisor, EU delegation to Australia
Tony Mahar, GM, Policy Economics & Trade, NFF
Ben Parkin, Trade officer WTO & OECD, DAFF
Vanessa Goss, CEO Council of RIDC
Greg Field, GM Australian Institute Management

India
Marc Jackson, Director, Global Fruit Pty Ltd & Nuffield Scholar
Dr Baskar Reddy, Head, Agriculture, Food Processing & Water, FICCI
Sukhjit Singh Bhatti, Proprietor Bhatti Agritech
Hemendra Mathur, MD, SEAF India Investment
Dr Grayson Perry, Counsellor Commercial, Austrade
Anirban Deb, Business development Mgr, Austrade
Pawanjot Singh, Giani Seed Farm
Malwinder Singh, Syngenta
Rajvinder Pal Singh, Fish farmer
Mr Pangli, Farmer and PAU Ag Bureau
Kiren Gera, Asha



Qatar
Prof Ahmed Babikir, Chairmans advisor, Hassad Food
Andrew Goodman, GM, Global Investment, Hassad Foods
David Beatty,RM, Middle East, MLA
Annabelle Coppin, Nuffield Scholar
Blythe Calnan, MLA

Ukraine
Karin Fisher, Director Ukrainian Agricultural Club
Vlad Konovalchuk, Research Head, Bridges
Michael Swonson, Director, Atlantic Farms
Johan Boden, MD Operations, Green Team
Oleksandr Taranyshyn, MD
Dave Fulwood, Nuffield Scholar

France
Carmal Cahill, Trade & Ag Directorate, OECD
Hayden Montgomery, First Secretary Global Research Alliance, NZ Embassy
Alain Vendryes, Ingenieur Agronome
Thibaud Brocard, Owner Champagne Brocard Pierre
Michel Privard, Dorton Compost
Isabelle Rigollet, Safraniere du Bugey
Patrice Pobel, Masion de Brasseur, Nuffield Scholar
Daniel Martin, Chair French Irrigated Maize Assoc.



Geneva
Evan Rogerson, Director Agriculture & Commodities WTO
John Adank, Ambassador to WTO
Francois Riegert, Permanent delegate France, WTO
Isabelle Nuti, Counsellor Ag,Enviro,Sanitary & Phytosanitary Measures, WTO



USA
Dr Chris Parker, Minister - Counsellor (Ag), Embassy of Australia
Terry Meikle, First Secretary (Trade & Ag), NZ Embassy
Stephen Edwards, RM North America, MLA
Joe Schultz, Economist (Democrat staffer)
Tara Smith, Senior Professional,(Republican staffer)
Mike Dunlap, Director for Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology & Foreign Agriculture (Republican staffer)
David Salmonsen, Director Congressional Relations, American Farm Bureau
Ken Roberts, Director Modeleza International
Roger Wentzel, Assistant USTR for Agricultural Affairs, US Trade
Dr Anne Effland, Social Science Analyst, Market & Trade Division,USDA
Tres Bailey, Director Ag & Food, Walmart Stores Inc
Col Tom Vossler, Retried US Amry
Kay Hollabaugh, Partner Hollabaugh Bros
Sec Russell Redding, former PA Secretary for Ag
Gary Swan, Director, PA Farm Bureau
Sec George Greig, PA Secretary for Ag
Mathew Meals, PA Deputy Secretary for Ag
Amy Bradford, PennAg Industries
Brian Snyder, Director, PA Association for Sustainable Ag (PASA)
JD Dunbar, CEO, RULE, Penn State University
Frank Jurbala, Director, Penn Dept of Ag
Gary Smith, CEO, Chester County Economic Development Council
Monica Kline, Suri Alpaci
Brent Blauch, Limestone Springs trout farm
Wayne Lesher, Way-Har Farms, dairy & parlour
Chris Alonzo, President, Pietro Industries, mushrroms
Dave Hoffman, Partner Pardocx Vineyards
Maitreyi Roy, Director, Bartram's Garden & Eisenhower Fellow
Dr Joe Russo, Zedx
Hope Pjesky, Eisenhower Fellow
Jean Loney, Phizer Animal Health
Lela Reichart, Pensilvania Dept of Ag

Location:The World

USA Sites and Sounds

The following is collection of photos from our USA journey, enjoy.



Community garden program in Philadelphia at Bartrams Garden. 40 acres of heritage plants in the middle of a population of over 12 million.



Pensilvania produces over 60% of the US mushroom, working 364 days a year.



Limestone Springs trout farm, wiped out from floods last year and potentially is strife with cyclone Sandy next week.



Capitol Hill on lights tour of Washington.



Scholars on the road



Scholars visiting some locals.



Gettysburg, American Civil War, canvass painting depicting battle days 1-3 and weighing over 7 tonnes.




Some innovative wine packaging by local winery owned by 4 doctors?

Our GFP comes to a close, lessons learnt are many, friends made are for a life time, the travel bug has been feed and the opportunities are plenty. Hopefully over the past few weeks I have been able to share some of the amazing experiences I have been privileged to be present at and I look forward to the challenge of completing the scholarship program in the next 6 months.

Thank you fellow scholars Brenda, Shane, Mike, Sandra, Linda, Mark, Jemma, Rob and Ewan, friends for life.
Cheers Jim, Nicola and Chontell a fantastic program.
Thank you Wynns, GWRDC, Allen, Scott, Ben, Tristan, Jake, Rex, Trace, Nicole, Ben and the crew for holding the ship
To Suse, Georgie, Lucy, Jack, Mum, Joan and family, my sincere thank you for your support and help.
Non of these opportunities would have been possible with out all of your efforts. Thank you.

Passionate USA

Day 3 & 4
The line up of presenters continues to amaze me, be they past state senators or governors, trade officials, CEO of farm lobby groups or directors of business such as Walmart, where does it stop.

Tres Bailey (the third), Director Federal Government relations of Walmart gave us an insight as to how the globes second largest entity operates. Walmarts history stems from the rural regions of the USA, they turned over $419 billion in F11 from 9700 retail outlets across 27 countries and will celebrate their 50th year of operation, next year.
This business executes over 200 million transactions per week and utilises over 8000 trucks across the US to distribute their produce. To complete these deliveries Walmart spend close to $1 billion in fuel and are actively looking at ways to improve their environmental footprint. To achieve these business goals, Walmart are JV partners with Peterbuilt truck builders to develop a hybrid prime mover (diesel/electric), capable of reducing their fuel bill by 25%.

Walmart also consider sustainable agriculture commitments are important to business and are socially required in the global food market. They have identified 3 pillars of commitment;
Support Farmers & their communities
Produce more food with fewer resources & less waste
Source products in a sustainable manner
Under each pillar, on ground actions are identified to meet these objectives, eg;
9% of all produce to be sourced locally <50km radius of store
provide technical education to build healthier soils
source palm oil from sustainable sources
understand complete product life cycle = zero waste
consume only electricity from renewable sources (currently US largest solar power user).

Tres's commitment and passion for these ideals was amazing, even if we did get the sugar coated version, he still raised the bar in what businesses and individuals can do for the wider community.



Ken Roberts, Director International Business Relations, Mondelez (formally Kraft International), highlighted the power of NGO's and ensuring businesses engage and inform these groups of their strategies. Mondelez is actively sourcing opportunities in Latin America, India & China, but in doing so are aligning themselves with interested NGO's philosophies regarding locally sourcing primary goods, local employment, rain forest sustainable, human welfare issues and animal preservation. Kraft certainly believe these "leader" groups have a significant group of "followers" which will ultimately drive success of their business.
An interesting side note Ken mentioned was the dramatic drop in chewing gum sales during the GFC, this decline is attributed to the number of people with out work, as gum globally is chewed primarily at work. May be gum will be the next global wealth measure.

Kay Hollabaugh, partner of Hollabaugh Brothers Farm Market, outlined her strategy of keeping the consumer engaged and interested in their product. Kay spoke passionately about their eduction program and the role of the Farm Bureaus in nutrition awareness (500,000 children touched by their awareness program). Kays catch lines are "these hands feed you" and "educate the children and you educate the next shopper, parent & voter".

Location:Willow Valley Dr,Lancaster,United States

Passionate USA

It has taken a couple of days to really understand the American physic and I think passionate is the best word to describe everything they do.

We have been exposed to such a vast array of speakers, presenters, individuals, and businesses and the one thing they all have in common is 'passion'

Day 1
Hope Pjesky (Eisenhower fellow) our American host for the next few days, she is passionate about farming, government and making sure our brief time Washington is full of activities and excitement. This you have achieved, well done and thank you.

Day 2
Introduction to Australia & New Zealand, Agricultural Delegates to Washington and MLA Regional Manager.

Chris Parker, Minister-Counsellor (Agriculture) attached to the Australian Embassy, was such a breath of fresh air and to hear an Australian talking knowledgeably about the woes of foreign trade with the globes largest economy, is the best introduction on how Washington worked. Born in WA (not far from jemma), relocated to Penola for 5 years (played golf with Doug Bowen)and studied with farmers from Clare, he immediately connected to three scholars.



Chris painted a picture for us of where Australia is positioned in the trade and cross governmental relationships with the USA. Some comments and thoughts from this meeting;
300 staff in the Aus embassy, 150 directly involved in strategic alliance concerns, 3 staff work on agriculture
Agriculture represents 3% of Aust GDP, agriculture is 2% of the US GDP (farm gate prices), BUT USA agriculture lobby group is considered one of the most powerful voices in middle America (6 million farmers with 1 voice), how do we compete?
2015 the Free Trade Alliance with USA will open up US beef markets to Australian beef, ideally suited to grinding cattle which our northern cousins may benefit.
Australian Trade negotiations are focused on arguing against the premise that Aust uses Sanitary & Phyto-sanitary (SPS) regulations to limit trade (Aust/NZ apple ruling classic example), enhancing the ANZUS alliance especially given Aust has allowed US soldiers to be based on our soils, removal of price support on sugar and milk, understanding the US food safety bill (is this a trade barrier??), building support and formulating positions of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) alliance.

The complexity of Chris's job is further blurred by the impact the WTO has on the USA regime and the conversations in play at any given time. The WTO assess any market adjustment tools in three ways, Green, Amber and Red. Green box actions include payments like environmental payments or direct land ownership payments, amber box subsidies are mechanisms like crop insurance (underwritten by the government) that assist famers in difficult seasonal conditions and red box subsidies are direct payments to famers for produce grown.
The WTO consider the US subsidies for milk & sugar to be red box and are challenging the US that the crop insurance schemes are also red box subsidies. This is a contentious issue especially given many US cereal growers have just harvested a severely drought affect crop and yet will have one of their better financial years on record. Is this not protectionism?
The US farmers will fight these views tooth and nail, good luck Chris.



To help the farmers manage these muddy waters, two significants factors exist, the US Farm Bill an the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The US Farm Bill, involves funding from the treasury to the tune of 1 trillion dollars over the next ten years for ag and non ag related programs. An interesting facet of the Farm Bill is that 80% of the program is directly tied to feeding the nation via 'food stamps' and the school nutrition program. Hence the question from an Australian view, "when the sovereign government is actively involved in buying food from the market and supporting farmers with crop protection, how can they say they are not subsidising agriculture?"

The American Farm Bureau is the lobbying vehicle for 6 million famers, 85% of the nations farmers, driven by "grass roots" concerns and a staff of over 300 people focused on influencing the American congress and assembly, no wonder they can preserve such an array of trading conditions.

Fascinating day, full of contradictions and insight, well worth the journey.

Location:Washington DC

France: Fascinating,Romantic,Awesome,Naughty,Cold,Exhilarating.

France has always been a beautiful country and having the opportunity to revisit it is really special, even more so with a group of farmers from Australia and New Zealand.



Our expedition started in the pearl of France, Paris. Unfortunately over cast weather hindered the view of the typical Paris scenes, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Des Champs Élysées, but did result in us scampering across the crazy round about known as Arc de Triomphe, great adrenaline rush.


Day 2
An early morning adventure on the tube resulted in us being 1 hour early for a meeting at the New Zealand high commission offices to discuss the ins and out of OECD (Organisation of Economic and Cooperative Development)

Carmel Cahill;Trade and Agricultural Directorate to OECD spent an engaging 2 hours detailing the history, principles and motives of the OECD.
34 member countries
Focus: to drive inter governmental improvement, across a range of briefs, for the member nations
How: by collaborating knowledge and sharing lessons on policy development across member nations, via working committees focused on interest sectors.

This body of nations has previously been seen as the developed world trying to 'mother' developing nations but the global power shift is occurring way from the traditional big two, EU & USA, to the BRIC group of countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. The OECD work by measuring and understanding the primary economic drivers in nations, determining what level of subsidy exists and what impact that subsidy has on the global market. Once these are determined member states will debate strategies to influence and adjust nations they feel are overly subsidising their sectors.

The idea of 34 developed nations telling a collective of developing nations they can and can't provide subsidies, is pretty hypocritical, especially when the two most powerful nations have been subsidising their industries for years, but they try too. The OECD are proud they have lobbied the EU to de-couple the ag subsidies from production to land based/environmental levies and are now canvassing the BRIC group to do the same. Why should developing nations listen when nations such as the EU continue with supporting an uneven playing field.



Australia and New Zealand are small, but vocal, members of the OECD and have been lobbying hard for many years to free trade up, however somewhere in the translation of the policies 'free trade' has been redefined. Why are EU countries still paying a subsidy to their farmers, that provide an economic 'free kick' Australian and NZ farmers don't receive, yet preach to the developing world not to pay subsidies?

An interesting statistic debated around the room was the World Food Organisation (WFO) statement "world food prices have decreased every year since 2001" what will the global food market look like in 2025? who can tell.

Day 3
Ewan Rogerson, Director of Agriculture & Commodities WTO, chaired and convened a round table discussion in the World Trade Office, Geneva, on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Doha trade negotiations and WTO food security beliefs. I was amazed at how quickly 5 hours could pass discussing what I previously thought was a dry, macro economic debate well beyond my means.

The skills of the negotiators articulating their nations position on agricultural policy and trade was amazing and the patience required to achieve consensus amongst 157 nations is enormous, which highlights the bitter disappointment when Doha failed in 2008. Australia plays a pivotal roll in moulding positions amongst the Cairns Group and the BRIC group of nations and firmly believes the removal of export subsidies and reduction in import tariffs will benefit the Australian economy.


After an exhausting round of trade negotiations and further debate on the recent WTO ruling allowing Kiwi apples into Oz, bugger, we needed some more education on the finer points of French living, wine.

After a quick 2 hour sight seeing drive through the Marigneu provence, we arrived at Eric Angelot winery Bugey-maison-angelot, where we balanced up the general group conversations from maize, corn, wheat etc to wine!!



Eric and his family run a small 28ha estate focussing on a range of wines from sparkling pinot and chardonnay, altesse and gamay. He commented on the challenges of the French wine market and how to deal with a per capita consumption rate decline of 40%, mind you the French still drink 17 litres/head vs Aust at 9.9lt/hd. It was a great 3 hours with Eric and via Michel (our host) we were able to give all the group a quick lesson in viticulture, very satisfying. Eric felt his greatest viticultural innovation during the past decade was the withdrawal of insecticides from his spray program, well done.

Day 4
This day was a very balanced day with a maize grower farm visit in the morning, a long lunch in Pergouge (1000 year old medieval village) and then a beer brewery tour and tasting, not sure how life will be once we return to Aust, possibly somewhat harder than now.

Daniel Martins farm was a great example of vertical integration of a business and seeing opportunities and grabbing these with both hands. Daniel and his son crop over 500 hectares of maize, some irrigated from the Rhone River, provide a contract harvesting service, seed drying and finally seed storage. Both Daniel and Jerome spoke passionately about their farms and achievements and frankly about the pro's and con's of the CAP.


Pergouge is a beautiful ancient village, that is quintessential France, we had wonderful food, plenty of wine, great conversations in French and English and then walked the ancient streets to appreciate the awe of France. A rare day to be remembered for ever.



Patrice Pobel, French Scholar, had the difficult job of pouring a few beers, taking us through his brewery, giving us some understanding of his business journey and then pouring another few beers. Whilst it may seem we were just eating and drinking the entire day, the conversations between the 7 French scholars and 8 Aust/NZ scholars were all extremely educational, and can be summed up with the phrase, "we were introduced to some French farmers today and leave France with some French friends, who happen to be farmers and will remain friends for a life time."

Day 5
Compost turner



Michel Privard, our host, walked us through his business and the trials and tribulations of his career. Being the eldest of 7 children and unfortunately losing his father at 16, Michel has had battle or two during his farming life. Today Michel and his twin brother farm 60 cows that are shedded all year and are milked by a robotic milking plant, they built a 6000tn green waste compost facility that receives all the green waste from a 40km radius, commingles with their dairy waste and produces about 1500tn of high analysis soil conditioner that they spread onto their pastures @25tn/ha. Wow what a closed loop and an amazing way to make money from other peoples waste. From a 350k euro investment, paid back in 6 years, they now have access to an increasing volume of soil conditioner that will make the grass grow.

Just to round out the opportunities he has recently installed and contracted a 20 year deal for solar generated power, enabling him to sell at 0.61 euro/kw whist paying only 0.07 euro/kw to run his dairy, payback 6 years. Well done.



All these opportunities can make a man hungry and thirsty, so Michel invited us to a little sunday brunch, struth we wont need to eat for a week. To Michel and Dominique, thank you so much for a wonderful day, I hope we can show you the same hospitality some time soon.

Day 6
Another day of examples of where people have just grabbed the opportunity, built a need, and are now starting to make some money. Christine Robin-Drouillet got fed up paying for sick slips and losing too many so she built a 300 sow farrowing shed. With a reduced mortality rate, she now needed more hog space, ok lets build a 2000 head grower shed. With all these pigs and effluent, there must be an opportunity for a digester (bio gas), 480k euro later and a contract to sell power for 0.18 euro/kw whilst buying it for 0.7 euro/kw, we have a new digester.



Fed up paying to much for processed stock food, support a contractor who can do it when you want it, how you want it and half the price of purchased stock feed, brilliant. This truck is capable of mixing upto 6 tonnes of stock with a range of ingredients you have on hand.



Brisse chicken, the only GI recognised chicken in the globe, has grown so rapidly that local villages needed to develop a farm store.

With the local department (council) support, finances and guidance 25 farmers now have a farm shop specialising in local produce, expected turnover in 12 months 1million euro. Just a great can do attitude!



We will miss France, the friends we have found, opportunities discovered, meals and wine consumed, weight gained!! and above all the broken conversations experienced between farmers, cooks, cleaners, chaps at the bar, politicians, bar man/women etc. This is just a great country to visit, merci becou.

Location:Paris-Geneva-Perouges-Dorton-Bellignat

The Grand Bazzar

Turkey continues the tradition of over delivering in excitement and adventure from this trip. From guided tours through the Kapalicarsi (Grand Bazaar), Gallipoli and Anzc Cove, Yerebatian Cisterne, Hagia - Sophia Museum, Blue Mosque and roof top meals over looking the Marmara Sea, truly breath taking.



Grand Bazaar shopping is a sight to behold, 24 million shoppers per year visit here. Countless shops selling anything from spices, rugs, scarves, jackets, push bikes, you name you can buy it here. Not being a great shopper I was a little nervous, but soon got into the swing of the moment and found the bottom of my wallet very quickly.



Gallipoli was a very moving visit that saw us drive 4 hours to the peninsula and then an amazing history lesson for the next 5 hours, boy have we been taught a different perspective. Our Turkish guide was a fountain of knowledge who took the time to educate us on the Turkish views and thoughts as well as the Australian versions. The stories he recalled were heart retching and really made us question what was the point.



The strongest feeling I took from this journey was the fact the Turks consider the battle as a nine month gestation of 3 children in the womb of a horrible world war. At the end of the 9 months 3 nations were born Aus, NZ and Turkey and we will always be siblings. This is what drives such a strong brotherhood between the three nations.



The ingenuity and architectural intelligence of the Romans can be truly seen in the Yereatian Cisterne. To design and hide a labyrinth of under city rivers, storage dams and channels is something to behold. The fact is was only discovered in the late 1930's, says something about the cunningness of this era.



Hagia-Sophia Museum is an enormous monument to acknowledge the history of the religious influences over Turkey, during the past 1000 years. Having being used for christianity worship, then as a mosque, it has a wealth of hidden secrets that are only now being revelled. The solace that could be experienced is difficult to describe and knowing worship occurred so long ago, is very sobering.


The Blue Mosque represents the current Muslim faith of Turkey. Its beauty and design is breath taking, even with many thousands of worshipers a day visiting this temple, it still had a sense of peace and tranquility.



I am by know means religious, but there is something about visiting ancient temples, battle fields, under ground rivers and eternal flames commemorating the service of men half my age. What it is I don't know, but it gives you that goose bump feeling.



I have really enjoyed the educational aspects of Turkey and how it connects with Australia. The locals are so hospitable, friendly and more than ready for a haggle. I am pretty sure some one has had a win at my expense.

We head to France tomorrow, sad farewells from Turkey, another country I would love to visit some time soon.

Location:Ahmet Selehattin Sk,Fatih,Turkey

Unbelievable Ukraine

Our Ukraine adventure has regrettably finished and time to consider the hardships, opportunities and resources can now be occur, without the influence of vodka.

Dave Fulwood, 2005 scholar, guided us through a maze of meetings, individuals, back roads, farms and culinary delights, that like the previous 2 countries will be remembered for a life time. Well done and thank you.

Some quick stats on Ukraine and comments on the agricultural situation.
45 million people reside in the Ukraine, over 24 regions.
They farm about 40 million hectares and experience a temperature range of minus 30 degrees C to plus 30 degrees C.



Fresh produce is plentiful with over 2 million hectares potentially irrigated via a network of channels built by the Russians.

Post independence from Russia, the state provided all rural settlers a parcel of land (1.2ha) to reflect their contribution to the states wealth. Today there are over 5 million farmers, with property sizes from 1.2Ha to enterprises farming over 500,000Ha.

The average salary is $3-400 USD per annum and many consider that life under Russian rule was more settled and safer than currently.



The extremes in Ukraine occur across all aspects of the country.
Land values range from $300 /ha usd to $3300 /ha usd
Rent $20-60/ha usd
Yields 5t/ha wheat, 8t/ha corn, 110t/ha carrots, milk 12 lt/day/hd
Land ownership forbidden to foreigners, to farm 10,000ha Atlantic Farms has 3800 rental agreements.
Modern gear and not so modern.






70% of fresh produce is sold in the markets or from the street, yet 'Green Team' can see opportunities and have built a 50,000 tonne chilled storage facility, truly visionary.





Kiazen (CI) has been discovered in the Ukraine, this management tool has spread wide and far, even if we cant read the learnings.



The adventure we have had in the Ukraine can only be described as unforgettable, be it the tradition of toasting with vodka, beef stroganoff, cabbage soup, cold showers, chaotic drivers, Marsha our translator, the rich and poor, scenery, expanse of arable land, bribes, Chernobyl and Shane Fitzgerald (irish) who left our group at the airport. Ooo Roo Paddy we enjoyed your company,laughter and signing, never to be forgotten.






We have a few days in Turkey to recoup and refocus, which will no doubt fire us up for the down hill leg of the GFP, namely France and USA.

Keep it touch, post a comment, and stay well.

Location:Kakhovka