CANFA Comment

5 Sept: Mazatlan, Mexico
Just an update as we spend the morning in a hotel on the beach at Mazatlan on the Pacific ocean. Since the last email we left Mexico City for a visit to Cimmyt (the second time for Ray and I) but still very informative and interesting.

Fernando was in his usual charismatic form showing us the wheat breeding and conservation agriculture trials. This time though they treated us to a Mexican lunch with the research crew who had been in the fields putting blue tape on individual wheat heads, that would later be harvested by hand in order to keep the seed for further selection. The lunch was salsa and t-bone steak so we were really spoilt!

Heading north of Mexico City with have travelled through beautiful green and some very rich agricultural land - not how I had pictured Mexico at all. We have stopped off at an organic avocado and macadamia farm to see handmade biofertilisers in action. Eugenio Gras recommended this farm to us and he will be in Australia for another course in Mudgee later this month, which we are going to.

On the way, we stopped off at La Cofradia, a tequila farm and factory for lunch. The name tequila is licensed to only approximately three states in Mexico but this one was in the shadows of Tequila Mountain. We learnt how the pineapple of the agave (very similar to our aloe vera) plant is baked, fermented and distilled to form three types of tequila. We tasted all three and thought all were pretty good. After the tour of the factory, museum and shop we had a Mexican lunch outside with a mango margarita!

The hotel we're in is right on the beach but it also has swimming pools with a swim up bar and live music. We only have one more day with the bus and the rest of the trip will be by train so it will be different, but we are certainly seeing some wonderful countryside up the west coast of Mexico.

Anne Williams

9 Aug: England
We left London this morning and unfortunately the visit to Red tractor was cancelled but kept coming here to Bristol. As a back up we arrived at Stone Henge for a quick look! There were not too many people there when we arrived so we spent about an hour walking around it. I was lost in another world for that time - magnificent! We continued on and had lunch in an English pub - very old and quaint in a little village.
 
We had a farm visit about 3pm to someone Tony was able to line up at the last minute and it was exceptional. It was called The Great Tew Estate, about 4,000 acres with a 40,000 tonnes grain drier facility! The manager, Colin Woodward showed us around the the massive grain sheds and later we went and saw some wheat being harvested. Pictured is the readout from the yield monitor. Colin thought that it was not 100% accurate. But he thought that it might yield about 12 t/ha.

After that we saw a machine cultivating this year's wheat stubble. It was offset discs with deep rippers and press wheels. They then have one-pass at sowing. Colin said that only about 10% of UK is no-till and he did not think it would work for him because of compaction on his soil type.
 
We left about 6pm and arrived at Bath for dinner in another pub. I think this is where my mother's mother was born. So I've come home to the old country! It is a stunning city with wonderful old buildings. We arrived late at the hotel and are heading to Edinburgh tomorrow. It is all a fantastic trip!
 
Anne and Ray Williams

7 Aug: France
Since the last update we went for a drive in the French countryside to Longue to vist LimaGrain where Jean-Jacques Poutoire, the research centre manager, met us to show us around. The farm land looked absolutely beautiful, the wheat was mostly harvested and the corn is still green. The rolling hills and little villages made quite a picture.

After the four hour bus drive we had group discussion with Jean where we introduced ourselves and he outlined the companies features and goals. We were treated with an excellent lunch, rolls and french red wine and tart. We then had a tour of the sheds looking at machinery and labs before visiting the nursery where they are growing different types of corn. They place paper bags on the male tussel for 1 day and after the female cobs is fertilised it is bagged until harvest to stop further contamination. A long process as each row must be daily checked as different plants come in at different times.

It was a long drive back to Paris arriving about 9 pm. We felt sorry for the French bus drivers keeping them from their Friday night activities but they were pleasant about it.

Main points of interest about Lima Grain
* Lima grain is a farmer cooperative that breeds corn at this centre.
* It also has an $14 million investment with GRDC and CSIRO called Arista which is investing in wheat varieties and is looking at developing an high amylose wheat (low GI and high fibre) that has many health properties such as reducing diabeties, colon cancer etc.
* At this research site they have two breeding programs, trial evaluation teams and seed production teams
* There are 14 breeding sites in Europe, 3 seed production sits in France (4000ha)
* It takes about 7 years to get to the production stage.
* They are getting about 1.5% genetic gain per year in yield. The corn averages about 8-9t/ha in France but they have got up to 20 t/ha in some experimental plots.
* Corn acreage is stable but slightly decreasing in France but increasing in Germany. This is mainly due to the nuclear energy ban and going to biogas to produce methane for electricity.
* The plot harvesters have automatic yield, moisture, protein etc so there is no need to bag each plot. I am sure the DPI would love that when they harvest the NVT trials.
* At Longue there is 22 permanent staff and 31000 hours of seasonal workers.

This ends an excellent but short trip to France. We had a wonderful time but in the morning we were on the plane again back to London - it is hard but someone has to do it!

Anne and Ray Williams