A hot build up to Christmas

The day starts in a panic as my hire car keys had accidentally been swept under a cabinet. I can’t imagine the hassle and cost had they been lost.

I am really starting to see the “fair go” and “Mateship” Aussie business culture. This is clearly proven this morning as I sit at a beachside coffee house with Dr Paul Dare. It’s 37 degrees out and in between complex precision agriculture discussions, he casually points at a passing boat and informs me that he had hired it for his companies Christmas party that evening.

Later I head for the hills and seek out Scott Samwell. His brothers dogs clenched jaws found me first. Scott was due to join us in New Zealand but missed out due to injury. He runs an extremely interesting farm specialising in Brussel Sprouts  and I’m sure we share many similar points of view.

I find a motel room in a Hahndorf, a town professing to be the most distant German habitation from the fatherland.

I discover that Adelaide doesn’t take long to look around, having booked my bags in and headed off for a mooch. The central market is buzzing and quite interesting, with a large Chinese quarter I also encounter a Chinese protest march. Eventually my time is up and I embark on the long journey home. Still no contact from Quantoss and no upgrade despite my protests also no send off from the countries prime minister either.

Back in blighty and guess what – its foggy and cold!

Adelaide Hills

I am really taken by the Adelaide hills, particularly by the scenic drive down gorge road which takes me to Croplands sprayers. Ironically their “quantum mist system” was initially developed in the UK but 20 Years too soon. Sean Mulvaney is not at all phased by the size of my apple trees and he comes up with a viable dual row spraying option which they have proven in citrus orchards and exactly matches my ideas. I am only afraid that the crippling exchange rates would put pay to taking this any further.

I call in on APAL labs only to discover that Tom Bradshaw had visited the week before having contacted them via an entirely different source. It will be interesting to compare notes.

I drop in on an apple pressing operation and very much enjoy chatting to the Ceravolo family.

I arrive at Greg’s vineyard in time to do a couple of hours vine clearance. Snakes and heat are the enemy though at least I feel I have contributed in a small way for the excellent dinner, bed & breakfast.

Up a Gum Tree

I choose another early flight to give me an extra full day in Adelaide. By mid morning I am in the Adelaide hills visiting Kym Green with Greg Horner who owns a vineyard locally and I had met in Queensland.

This is my one and only trip to a real apple orchard in Australia. I deliberately chose to look at areas of interest in all walks of agriculture so that I didn’t become distracted by apple specific issues. Kym’s operation comes highly recommended by Australian scholars and has been frequently visited by uk scholars too.

We have a crash course in biodynamics, a subject that I understand was much debated at last Years conference. We were interrupted at one point by a guttural chundering noise, the sound of a koala who is staring down upon us from a gum tree, a stereotypical Australian scene.

Kym grows apples and cherries in a unique and impressive manner however like many Australian farmers that I spoke to, he appears to have fallen on tough financial times with increasing costs and poor weather over the past few Years. Wednesday night is the traditional meeting time for the local religious cult (Adelaide’s version of the Amish) and Kym host’s a regular alternative gathering for non believer’s! I am kindly invited to join them and we have a great time chewing the fat and catching up on local gossip.

On the scent of Golden Delicious

After an intensive week in Queensland it was great to spend Friday night staying beside the beach on the sunshine coast courtesy of a couple of Kiwi’s, in exchange for giving them a lift. The only downside is the 5am start in order to shed the hire car and catch my flight to Sydney.

I am met by my cousin at the station and within 24 hours I finally catch some R & R, canoeing on middle harbour and mountain biking around Manley dam. We catch a ferry to manly besides the Sydney opera house which is not as white as I expected. The coat hanger bridge reminds me of my days at Newcastle University.

The temperature rises to 38 degrees c and tempting as the beach is my trip to the Hunter valley vineyards falls through but I manage instead to visit the Sydney university department for precision agriculture.

On the way through town I stop off to look at some packaging ideas and find my first apple orchard! Well actually it’s a mock up to publicise a new DKNY fragrance “Golden delicious”.

The iconic New York brand DKNY has partnered with celebrity jeweller Martin Katz to create the world's first million-dollar fragrance bottle. The shape? You guessed it - an apple.
The launch of the DKNY Golden Delicious fragrance in Kuala Lumpur recently was a prestigious affair with two security guards guarding the world's first million-dollar fragrance bottle and men in black hovering around mysteriously.

The department store has gone to town with a false tree to display the apple shaped jars of perfume.

A MAN WITH A PASSION FOR FARMING

On my final day in Queensland we caught up with Peter Korczynski, who grows passion fruit and Custard apple in a stunning location in the lee of the Glass top Mountains. These were named by Captain Cooke because of their shimmering White appearance from the distance at sea and they very much look like the cores ofthe volcano's that formed them. Passion fruit are grown on vines and harvested from December to September, when the fruit falls to the ground. Earlier we had visited a biodynamic farmer, Susan Rodger, who was gearing up for the full moon that evening.
We had a minutes silence at 11:11:11 on 11:11:11.

My time in Queensland was particularly useful. I also met pecan, broad acre and a multitude of other growers. Perhaps the highlight was the clearest ever explination of climate change. All through our conferences in London and New Zealand there was no mention of Carbon sequestration in the soil. Farmers were being hailed as potential future heroes for keeping a growing population fed!. There was no indication that they may have a major contribution to climate change and that carbon sequestration within soils could become a future income stream! In simple terms there is a fixed amount of carbon on our planet and man is now chiefly responsible for dictating the balance of co2 in the soil, water, vegitation and atmposphere. So it's off to the beach before a 5am start for my flight to Sydney

BRISBANE

Directly from an overnight flight I arrive at the annual Brisbane Food fair. After a few free coffee samples and some energy drink I warm to the task and enjoy yet another immediate introduction to what the countries food and agricultural offering is. Cider is obviously becoming very popular and I see several very interesting food and processing ideas.

Off to Joes watering house and I sleep for 13 hours solid. The next day I attend the NTS certificate in Sustainable agriculture course. Having just booked in, who should stroll around the corner but Mr Tom Bradshaw, UK! It’s a small world.

After an intense days study Tom & I chew the Nuffield fat whilst having a bite to eat at the surf club on Noosa Head beach.

BEYOND CHINA

We drove to Wenjiang for a meeting and more entertainment from the Chengdu agricultural research institute. Today’s bush tucker trial involved Smoked Quail, ducks feet, tripe and some form of testicle soup. The roads are now less crowded but open to the vagaries of random rural carts and animals.

I reckon the flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong is much quieter than the outbound leg but soon realise that it is the fact that I am now used to the Chinese communicating as if on speed. I visit my seat at Hong Kong airport starbuck’s and am relieved that Quantas are flying. I have an exit seat but it’s next to the most an arrogant man who disenfranchises the stewards immediately.

 

A SHOCK RECOVERY

In 2008 Dujiang Yan was levelled by a devastating earthquake but the authorities 45Km away did not react for 24 hours.  The central government decreed that each wealthy Eastern Chinese city / town should twin with one that was effected by the earthquake to help fund and plan recovery. Dujiang Yan was allocated to Shanghai and today has been completely rebuilt. It’s history however is deep rooted with a 2000 Year old irrigation system that made Sichuan the bread basket of China and the birth place of Maoism.

After a meeting in cavernous new offices of the local agricultural department, I was taken to Edon agriculture. Mr Du was immaculately turned out with slicked back hair and black gangster jacket. I was proudly shown around his Kiwi packing facilities (which had only slightly less people than a Chengdu street) and wine manufacturing plant. We then drove to a Kiwi orchard and a slightly surreal experience. We were greeted on a red carpet leading to the orchard by a group of ladies in traditional costume, and given a button hole. Following a tour of the orchard we were treated to a rousing speech and signing ceremony between Mr Du, Dole China and rainbow supermarkets. We adjourned to lunch at a local club with sectioned off rooms, clearly designed for business lunches. The food kept coming and each time you were toasted it is a custom to finish your glass of (Kiwi) wine. My only saving grace was the small glasses and the fact that Mr Du’s hospitality had extended to an extremely heavy session on the previous night, so much so that Mr Du himself fell asleep at his chair midway through the meal.

I'LL MEET YOU OUTSIDE MARKS & SPENCER

Just when I had got used to the diabolical roads, Chengdu threw a curve ball this morning – rain! Utter chaos!

I had been given a contact at CBBC by the director yesterday. For those of you with kids, you can guess what I thought! The address proved to be wrong and the lady at CBBC instructed me to board a taxi to Pacific store. In the days before mobile phones it was convention to rendezvous with friends outside Marks and Spencer, when visiting a strange town. Today I was reminded of the time that I discovered that Wakefield had Two M & S stores!

Unfortunately my impromptu translator had written down the address for the wrong Pacific store. It took me Two hours to eventually make it to the meeting which was a five minute walk from the hotel. John Stones suggested that we all spent a week alone in a country that hardly spoke English, he obviously knows that it’s trial by ordeal!

Cherry was very accommodating at the CBBC (the China-Britain Business Council) and I feel that I am finally beginning to unravel a bit of how the Chinese system works.

A text arrives and I hot foot it back to the hotel. The break through at last as the cavalry from the Chengdu Agriculture Division have arrived. I am whisked away to their HQ and spend a very informative afternoon talking with them.

NOBODY PANDA RING TO ME

The day starts badly with news from Ren that they have not organised any visits for me for after the show.

My whole visit is in tatters yet again!

I pay a quick visit to the Panda reserve whilst I await the responses from several emails and plan my next move. I am left wondering why it was that this once ferocious carnivorous beast has become such a benign, bamboo chewing embodiment of cuteness? As a species, it has already outlived it’s evolutionary shelf life by Three million Years so little wonder it needs protecting. Not quite the current embodiment of the nation that it represents.

My little excursion gives me time to clear my head.

I refer to the map of Chengdu and find the provincial government offices. Twenty minutes later I am doorstepping the security hut and the armed guard is about as impressed as John stones walking into HSBC hq with a pig protest banner. I was rescued by the changing of the guard and a female member of staff who witnessed this and phoned her English speaking colleague. He dictated an address to an awaiting taxi driver and I made good my escape before the soldiers had time to recover the situation. The driver dropped me off pointing down a dingy back alley. Disbelieving I set off only to be met by a girl who had helped me negotiate for some products at the trade fair the previous day. It transpired that she worked for the Sichuan Province Department of Agriculture which was where I was heading for and spent the next couple of hours in the company of the “big cheese” of the Sichuan government agricultural body. They weren’t going to help me with any visits but it was a bit of a wheeze and I got some good general information from them.

24 hours in town and I witness my first serious RTA, a youngish bloke on his scooter. I realise that the innovative Chinese have patented a deadly stealth road menace, the silent but deadly electric scooter.

CHINA - FINALLY.....

I am finally getting used to Hong Kong airport and glad I remembered to charge my Starbucks card. My first encounter of Chineseness was as I embarked the Dragonair flight. A comedy moment followed when I could not find my seat because the seat numbers were set very low, out of my eye line of sight.

I have no idea of what is to come but landing at a chaotic Chengdu airport at 11.30pm on a Sunday evening!

I am shocked to find that Chengdu is officially home to 15 million (probably 18 million) people and the roads reflect this, along with the massive smog fest.

The Chinese Agricultural Trade fair initially disappoints me but I soon realise that this is because it does not fulfil my normal expectation of and agricultural show. Organised into provinces and designed to showcase what is produced, many stands are manned by ancillary staff. I make some contacts and find a couple of interesting products but overall leave with a thorough understanding of the types of products grown & processed in China, and the potential for their market. It served as a great introduction to Chinese agriculture and food production.

GROUNDED

All set to go on my next leg and I get a text from my wife to check flights! Naturally I am booked with Quantoss!!!! Grrrrrrr..... All their flights are grounded Three hours before I am due to depart.
Connection flights, transfers, hotel, trade fair tickets, meetings etc... are all in limbo for 45 minutes whilst I join the race to find an alternative flight to Hong Kong. I strike lucky with Air New Zealand, leaving a week for Quantas to pull their finger out

A SHROPSHIRE LAD(Y)

At the recruitment event I was promised that the Nuffield would take me to places that I would never have imagined. This was certainly the case when at 9 O'Clock on Saturday morning I was standing by a pen of sheep at Shrewsbury market. It was the Shropshire sheep societies annual show and auction and I arrived just in time to see Liz Bowles taking first and second in class.

I met a Frenchman called Benoit and arranged to visit his orchards.
Thanks to Pippa from the Shropshire society for the invitation

A MESSAGE FROM THE SPONSORS

Today I entered "The Bear Pit", it was the location for a mini Nuffield conference at the Three Counties Show. As the Three Counties Agricultural society are part sponsoring me I was annoyed that I couldn't make it Yesterday as well.
More inspiration was drawn from the experiences of previouos Nuffield scholars and the best bit was the level of support and encouragement that they gave me afterwards.

Later whilst looking around the excellent show, I got chatting to a chap called Mike Bowles. It transpires that his wife Liz was a 2002 scholar and custodian of one of the top flocks of Shropshire sheep in the country. She was driving up from Devon and fortunately arrived in time for me to meet her in of all places the WI tea room. I knew that Shropshire sheep have a similar characteristic to Baby Doll sheep in that they don't strip bark or leaves from trees. Liz is just the contact I needed to help me find French growers who also run Shropshires.

A Red carpet departure

I arrive at Napier airport, numbed at the thought of the journey ahead but excited at seeing Mandy & Lauren again.

John Key, the prime minister of New Zealand wanders into the terminal building and I introduce myself. He urges me to write positive things about New Zealand in my report.

Later I curse the policeman who failed in his brief to take a photo of me shaking John Key’s hand however if I ever choose to exact revenge I should be able to obtain fingerprint evidence from the photo that I have of his index finger. Instead here is my grainy photograph of John Key strolling up to the hire car desk. Security was so tight that both of the Hawkes bay police force turned out.

Just as my flight to Aukland is called over the tannoy, the prime minister wishes me a safe passage. When am I ever going to get a presidential send off ever again?

My last full day in New Zealand and finally a day off!

Having spent Five days at Hamner springs trying to ignore the mountain bike hire shop across the road from the hotel I finally manage to get out in the excellent Hawkes bay mountain biking area. I had a great 5 hour ride, slightly shortened by a broken chain.

Mike McCabe invites me for a post work Friday evening drink after which I go for an evening stroll around Napier, the art deco capital of the Southern Hemisphere.

As I summit the cliff footpath a sight unfolds which completely sums up the New Zealand economy, the Napier container port.

FINALLY - A CIDER APPLE TREE

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My final afternoon of study and I finally spot the fabled EBRO planting system. I track down the orchard owner, Mike McCabe and it transpires that he owns the Kingston cider company (and Hawkes bay brewery) that I had continually been told about. He even shows the elusive cider apple trees and gives me details of the Hawkes bay mountain bike park.

HAWKES BAY - NEW ZEALANDS SUNSHINE COAST

Hawkes Bay

Brett Ennis of Prevar meets me off the bus and spends time explaining his role in plant breeding and helps me form a programme for the next few days. I get the impression that Hawkes bay growers are far more corporate and more conservative than those I met in Nelson.

PALMERSTON NORTH

The city very much reminds me of an American town. Block after block, the local dudes screech around in Japanese cars with tin cans for exhausts. I find salvation in a 50 metre outdoor pool and manage to grab a Sunday roast at “Grandma’s roast house”. For a university town it was pretty dull.

I saw an interesting compaction busting machine being used in the park.

Massey university are very Innovative and forward thinking, and Dr Ian Yule was particularly helpful. I also meet Raury C Flemmer who introduces me to his robots and has developed a robotic Kiwi fruit harvester.
I guess I was quite pleased to get the bus out of here on Tuesday morning, especially as there was the first rain I had seen in New Zealand in Three weeks!

The moon Man

I arranged for a shuttle to pick me up for my Fifteen minute trip to the airport. Two other people had been collected from an hour “up country”. They happened to mention the name I recognised and within Two minutes of conversation they turned to me and said “so you’re the Nuffield scholar then”. Clearly I hadn’t covered my tracks effectively!

I got the opportunity to visit Craige Mackenzie in the Canterbury plains. New Zealand was still reeling from the devastating earthquake and I met many people who had been directly affected.

The press was full of predictions from “the moon man” who had correctly forecast both previous large earthquakes and was expecting another one this weekend. The flight was virtually empty as apparently most residents had chosen to vacate Canterbury for the weekend. Transiting Canterbury airport and stopping off in the outskirts of the city was a pretty surreal experience for me. I chose not to become a “disaster tourist” and was amazed that in the areas that I passed through I didn’t even spot one a sign of earthquake damage despite being only Five miles from the epicentre. An unknown fault line turned out to be the eventual downfall of an apparently beautiful city. More disconcerting was the fear that I could experience an earthquake myself at any time and yet everybody around me were just carrying on as normal.

My drive to across the Canterbury plains reminded me of crossing the Kansas and Nebrasca flatlands except that I noticed the irrigation channels running alongside the road contained torrents of water with 3metre weirs about every half mile.

Craige assured me that they had a beautiful mountain backdrop but rather like visiting Wales, it was shrouded in cloud. He’s harbouring some very interesting precision Agriculture initiatives.

Back on the plane the following day heading to Palmerston North and you guessed it, Twenty minutes after my departure a level 5.4 earthquake struck Christchurch, fortunately there was no further damage.

YEALANDS - THE BITS THE CSC DID NOT SEE

These are some of the statistics and bits of the operation we didn't see!

• 1000 Ha estate, 850 Ha Vines
• 14000 Tonnes grapes / Yr
• Ten new 175k tanks, total tank capactities 11million litres
• Each tank = warm or cold Glycol around rings to control fermentation. Tanks in cold room, wine will get to -3
• Wine bulked out for bottling elsewhere
• Prunings boilers for heating tanks
• 30 Tonne intake hopper

Staggering!

Marlborough – Woofers & Tweeters

Julian kindly lends me a car and I return to the wine region at the north Eastern point of the South Island.

Peter Yealand gives me a hearty welcome and Peter Mann is on hand to give me the low down on sustainability within their company. He offers to TWEET me to keep me updated. I have included photos of the Yealands plant as we never got to see it on our CSC visit and it is immense!

I moved on to the Seresin estate, a biodynamic vineyard. Colin Ross exhausts me on a whistle stop tour as he suddenly has remembered that he had a prior engagement. I am left reeling at what I had just seen and was fortunate to bump into Sean Phillips who introduces me to his gang of “woofers”. Initially I thought that he was being rude, as they were all female, but he went on to explain about the  World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms or WOOFER Organic Farming service, akin to the Kibbutz scheme.

My initial thoughts were “cheap labour, that fits well with my study topic” though the longer I spent with them the more I realised at how well informed, enthusiastic and engaged they were with the estates work and the land. Surely this is what we all strive to instill throughout our staff but this clearly demonstrates that peoples needs extend beyond merely paying them to do a job.

NELSON - NEW ZEALAND'S "EDEN"

I prevail upon Julian Raine for my Six day’s in and around Nelson. Despite it being his busiest time of Year and time spent at the Wellington leg of the CSC he warmly welcomes me to his home. I think Cath is now quite used to Nuffield refugees.

I meet some very interesting people in a whirlwind tour of orchards & processing plants. These guys are so focussed and producing some extremely impressive fruit and products.

I find a cider plant and have a tour around it but they cannot direct me towards any cider apple trees.

Guess what, the local public pool is just 2 minutes from Julian’s house!

Budget Whale Watching trip!

I awaken to the sunrise across the bay and supress the urge to text the photographs to my fellow scholars who by this time would be languishing in Hong Kong airport transit lounge.

The glassy flat sea is just too inviting and with a fisherman’s endorsement I go for a dip.

A dozen strokes in and I hear an almighty splash and experience a turbulent stern wave. As I lift my head to breath I see a massive Grey snout and arching body disappearing over my left quarter.

It probably only took Six rapid strokes to return to shore.

The fisherman assures me that it can’t have been a dolphin as it was solitary and must have been a seal which at worst can merely bite you. Not entirely convinced I return to the sea and knock a mile off. The following day I learn that several hours after my sea life encounter, a rare Pygmy whale is stranded on the beach.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4769975/Shot-whale-washes-up-on-beach

People pay a fortune for experiences like that!

John Palmer I Presume ?

Trying to organise a short notice study tour around New Zealand has proved very challenging, particularly during an intensive contemporary scholars conference.

At the outset my sponsors suggested that I visit a renowned pomologist, John Palmer in Nelson New Zealand.

It transpires there are Two John Palmers in the Nelson area and I find myself spending 24 hours with John Palmer, the chairman of Air New Zealand and board member for numerous other business’s.

Within Six hours of bidding farewell to my fellow scholars I am on a dream like “grand designs” set and enjoying a wine and a barbeque with John and Sally, overlooking the Ocean.

Thanks very much to both of them, surely things can only go downhill from here!