Flying seems to be the only time we get a chance to sit at computer and type. So Nebraska was a whirlwind of activity, with activity all day. The excitement of travel starting to pal a little without any break since we started.

However, we now know that there are over 30,000 pivot irrigators in the state of Nebraska, over 4 million cows and only 1.5 million people. Monocultures of Corn and Soyabeans abound with a few wheat crops thrown in. We met up with Bart Ruth (an Eisenhower Fellow we met in The Netherlands earlier this year) and his wife Lyn. They were absolutely fantastic - they organized our whole time, with special visits over the weekend to some of the leading operations in the area. We also got to shop at a WalMart - $14 Wrangler jeans etc. One of the highlights was an evening BBQ at Bart’s place with a number of his neighbours chatting about farming. Gary entertained with some Aussie bush poetry(cowboy poetry here) and we shared many similar concerns and issues with these guys- land prices, commodity values, water issues(we have less!!). However, on the whole found Nebraska similar to California in that they have an enormous amount of resource here, land, water and cheap labour and none of it really limiting in the ways we know about.

The day we arrived visited a pivot irrigator manufacturer- one of the three largest manufacturers in the world who were all within a 30 miles radius. These were the guys who first developed the swing out end section that fills in the square corners. They also were getting into wind power generators and had supposedly revolutionized the game by making the towers in shell pieces for easier transport. We ended up a little late there and almost got locked in the compound. Dinner that night a restaurant owner by a feedlot producer. We ate “Certified Angus” steaks that you could cut with a fork. Cert Angus means more than 50% black hide and fed 2/3 US “gold feed” ration. (they have a category for everything over here- great marketing!!) The feedlot mentioned is exporting 90% of its production into the EU, so they are doing well. The meal was great and we go to meet Bart’s son Jeff and his fiancé Krysta.

The next day to the local Co-operative Elevator operation- privatization seemed to mean refurbished grain silos and equipment which Graincorp could learn something from!! However, saw one good ole’ boy delivering his wheat in a chaser bin behind a tractor.

One of the most interesting farms we then went to was surprisingly, a dairy! Todd Tuls was running a 4400 cow dairy milking 24 hours a day and 3 times a day. At 36 years old he was having a fair go, being 80% geared but with plans to expand to 20,000 cows and vertically integrate such that he had his own branded product on supermarket shelves. Saw our first parallel parlour milking system there too.

That night off to the baseball- the 2nd game of the tri series College World Series Finals. Had Rib Tips for dinner and saw funnel cakes - all essentially deep fried fat. Great fun. Got lost the next day and missed a tour of an ethanol plant. Then visited a composting operation that was paid to take green waste from town and waste sludge from the above mentioned ethanol plant as well as the final fertilizer product they produced. Claimed to kill all pathogens and weed seeds in process but had no testing to prove it. Visited another ethanol plant that was going to use the manure off their feedlot to make methanol to power their corn fed plant - essentially power neutral and could make ethanol for 1/8 the cost of conventionally powered plants. With ethanol prices at $3.50 USD per some unit, license to print money.

On the plane to Washington DC where they had had 14 inches of rain-delayed planes and we missed our connection out of Chicago. Another reason was they couldn’t find a driver for the air-bridge so we could get off the plane for about 25 minutes- never fly United Airlines if you can help it!! Then we lined up to get standby tickets for the last flight 4 hours later at midnight. After an hour in the line Leroy went for a piddle and found they had found another plane and had brought that flight forward and was leaving - desperate sprint up the terminal… Anyway, our bags miraculously followed us. The next two days in Washington doing policy stuff. I guess I had had a fair bit of this in the past so really could have skipped this bit. USDA economist cheered me up- predicting cotton prices to go to 70 USc/lb this coming year (presently 53c). Organics policy manager couldn’t answer Gary’s double standards question!! About this stage we developed our ‘keep awake’ policy. We all had specific words we had to insert into a question to the presenter- Gary had Bees, Leroy zephyr, Rob boot polish and myself Foggy Bottom (Caroline abstaining through claims the boys were being childish)- Many hours of mirth.

Hopped on flight to Canada where we were met by Mark Wales- nuffielder from a couple of years ago who has been taking us around while we are in Canada. As his girlfriend is with us as well we feel like we are paying for a holiday for them for a week. Visited another 1963 model nuffielder and checked out their grain farm- succession planning the issue with two brothers in their 60’s and none of the children coming home. Visited winery (got Foggy Bottom into a question about sediment in bottles, and got a serious answer), then Niagara Falls, touristy thing, Hooters restaurant, went out (boys only- childish again) and had a few beers. There was a visit to a cement factory in there somewhere which was big.