Houma And Sugarcane.

After meeting with crop consulting icon Mr Ray Young I was off to Houma to visit the USDA sugar research unit and finally people that knew what sugarcane is. My primary contact there was Dr Ryan Viator, and he kindly hosted me whilst in Houma. I have to say how impressive this guy is he has a very grounded approach to research and when I said that I was amazed that he had Phd, he quickly responded "that he was simply a farmer that can take good notes". We had many conversations about soil health and pondered how to incorporate a beneficial companion crop to add diversity to a monoculture like sugarcane. What has become apparent to me that throughout my travels and many meetings in the freezing climate of Saskatchewan to the more tempid lands of Louisiana. People with a lot more science knowledge than I believe there is much to gain from inter cropping. It was interesting to see the importance that the farmers give to good research and good real world outcomes , this is where I think the Australian research model could learn something. At Houma these guys who many of whom held doctorates where out in the field consistently speaking with farmers, in most cases they were the conduit between research and implementation. It seems that we in Australia are going in the opposite direction distancing research from the end users.

Louisiana ,

I have had a problem uploading pictures withe tablet I have so there won't be any pictures for a while :-(. Anyhow I have lots to share , when I first got into the south I had the privilege of spending time with a living treasure when it comes to consulting and agronomy, Mr Ray Young. He has had over 40 yrs of consulting experience and has a wealth of knowledge with numerous crops and farming systems. It was very encouraging for me to hear his views about soil health and the benefits of crop diversity and he was of the opinion that the use of inter cropping has many soil and plant benefits if we are able to understand how to manage  a new ( well it is not a new concept) Mr Young said he actually when he was a boy planted velvet beans after he planted corn.

Churubusco Indiana.

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Have had great day here today, woke up to more snowing and -3 degrees Celsius. We were off to deliver corn that had been sold to a local elevator about 10k's away from the farm that I 'am visiting. There is some very interesting work happening with cover cropping and no till farming , which is not the norm in this area. They are finding that as soil organic matter improves so is water holding capacity, (from melting snow) and less soil is moving , these fields are all undulating hills and hollows. We also visited a father and son who farm and distribute cover crop seeds, they were very generous with there time and informative regarding there experiences building soil health through crop diversity, and provided me with some interesting possibilities for our own situation. It was amazing to think I was across the other side of the world sharing observations with people who farm completely different crops , that have seen the same improvements by adopting similar principals.

Back in the U.S.

We have left Canada and have spent a couple of days with some friends in Midland Michigan , it is the world head quarters of Dow chemicals. It is a big employer in the town, corn production is the other major industry. There is so much more here regarding businesses you don't have to go far to find what you are looking for, I found Cabela's talk about a kid in a toy shop. I'am off to Indiana and Sue is off to visit a friend in New York, so I am a little sad to say goodbye to Sue , but it won't be for to long.

London Farm show.

We are spending some time with my old mate Crosby here in Guelf Ontario and today we drove to London (no not London England)to have a look at the farm show. It is amazing how far the Nuffield network reaches I was talking to guy in a trade display looking at technologies for sensing soil chemical properties and as we talked we both realised we both new Nuffield scholar Craig McKenzie from NZ. There was a lot of machinery on display some different tillage equipment to what I have seen and some pick ups that caught my wife's eye as well. It has been very interesting understanding different farming practices and the extremes that are the seasons here , farmers here are limited by the winter and very much have to be on the ball, whereas at home we have only two seasons wet and dry !!

Snow Storm.

My first snow storm and it is a very different experience I can tell you. We are in Moose Jaw staying with Nuffield ' s Kelvin and Shelly Meadows who have been kind enough to host us for a few days, it has been great to bring Sue back here to visit . We travelled from Indian Head to a town called Melita to speak with a guy there that runs a research station that has been studying the benefits of intercropping , they have also shown with there work that a combination of crops, ie, shallow and deep rooted do complement and promote productivity. After Melita we travelled to Midale to visit a farmer who has been intercropping for a few years, his results are very compelling , he is not only reducing inputs, he is achieving better productivity and quality through crop combinations. For example with field peas and canola , the peas compete for sunlight therefore climbing onto canola which then stops lodging of the peas, resulting in a cleaner harvest,( harvester front not on the ground) and better seed quality due to seed not coming into contact with dirt.
You may ask how does this relate to sugarcane? What has become clear is that there is a great many interactions happening below the surface, everyone I have met has shared this belief, so for me it is finding out what will add to a sugarcane plant in my climate. The principals are the same.

Saskatchewan Canada,

Have been in Saskatchewan province for almost a week now and it has been a great learning experience, I have travelled to Indian Head where I met up with the guys at IHARF (Indian Head Agriculture Research Foundation) this  organization is what the sugar industry R&d should aspire to. These guys were really generous with there experiences with companion cropping and are confident that there are benefits to be had through this practice, some of the results they have are amazing showing that a combination of crops could yield the same , most times more with dramatically less inputs. What was really interesting was they worked out to produce what the companion planted paddock produced , in a monoculture system in most cases would require in most cases 15 to 20% more land.
We also had the opportunity to visit Nuffield scholar Jim Halford , the guy that designed the conserva pak no till planting system, that has dramatically changed the sustainability of broadacre farming in Saskatchewan.