A Full On Three Days In The Netherlands

Djuke's farm shop

Spent three nights with Henk Smit and Djuke Vander Matt, who had put together some contacts for me and provided me with a base for my time in the Netherlands, which was great not to be in a cramped hotel or backpackers.
Not to mention a nice break from highway food !
These two have a real passion for what they do and are always looking for ideas to improve.
A real assest to Nuffield and I hope that their enthusiasm gets Nuffield in the Netherlands back on track with funding.

Visited a few places but of particular interest was
Joordens Zaden.
Ruud Jordens, Director.
John Smolenaars, Sales Manager.
Kessel NL.

Joordens Seeds is specialized in breeding, production and marketing of green manure crops, fodder brassica's, fodder, forage grasses, turf grasses and biofumigatiegewassen.

Joorden Seeds has a subsititary in New Zealand, Seed Force. and are involved in seed sales and multipication for the country.

Joordens produce seed in many areas in the world othr than the Netherlands and NZ and these include ;
Canada, Hungry, Romania , Cheqsolvakia,
This spreads the risk and offers oppotunities to rationalise freight costs. Most of the Eastern European production comes back to the Netherlands to be cleaned and packaged as each of the markets have particular requirements with regard to packaging etc. By having the product back at the Headquarters means better stock control and the ability to package as and when required.
The Beet production however needs to all go to a plant in Germany, where the only plant in the world is used to split the germs, which if not done correctly will mean a drop in performance.If the multi plasms are not seperated, the plant develops multi growing points= yield reduction. If the plasm is bruised in the process, then that too = yeild reduction.

Much of the focus for Joordens is on fodder radish and mustard with nematode resistant properties and although a very complex part of the new breeding material, has potiential in the US Mid West where mono cropping is becoming a reality due to higher corn and bean prices. Shorter rotations mean increased nematode issues and longer term damage to soil health.
As I saw in the Mid West during the two visits earlier in the year, the potiential for these crops to assist with nematode issues as when sown in a cover crop situation, add as much as 4000kgdm per ha to the topsoil, which greatly improvessoil health.

As far as Fodder Beet goes .....?

The Company was established in 1921 by the Grandfather of the current generation.
Much has changed in that time, particularly in the markets and the agricultural environment. Farms have increased in size and the requirement for efficiencies has led to mechanisation. Yet the fundimentals of seed production for Joorden Seeds and others like them, have remained the same.
Much of the breeding material remains the same and stood the test of time.
If we take Fodder Beet, some of the best varieties from an animal utilisation perspective are 40 and 50 years old. Whereas the newer varieties tend to have some suger beet influence and although higher in DM are very hard for the animal to eat. Liftng and chipping seems like an obvious opton.
These varieties tend to be deeper growing as well, which means they are more difficult to litf and tend to carry a lot of dirt.
The possitive aspect is that because the sugerbeet types have a greater tolerance to frost and will withstand some freezing when in the clamp.
Clamp design is particularly important, to get airflow though theclamp and the covering needs to protect from freezing but also to breathe and detter water !
There is some breeding material that was developed some years ago but not brought to the market as the demand in Netherlands was deminishing.

This may be revisited due to the increased demand and potiential of the NZ market - watch this space.

Ruud, John and Myself.

Also of particular interest was Ric Devor
Agrifirm.com
Ric is a nutritionalist with Agrifirm. With a client base of approx 100, Ric makes regular visits and provides nutritional advise based on the client needs.

Agrifirm is a cooperative in which more than 17,000 Dutch farmers and horticulturalists have combined their purchasing power. The aim is to offer maximum purchasing advantage on high quality products like animal feed, seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, so that they can optimally contribute to successful crop cultivation and livestock farming.

Cow diet is predominatly grass silage, which generally gives enough protien.
The other components of the feed therefore need to deliver energy. Maize silage fills this requirement as it grows well in the area and is cheaper than fodder beet which is to costly due of the harvesting process and the potential damage to the soil.
Wheat is an option but tends to move through the cow too fast so needs to be used with a slow energy source like beet pulp or distillers grain.
Both of these products are readily available with the Distillers grain coming from Hieneken and beet pulp from the suger beet plants. They do however have a low DM and so logistically can only be used as a relatively small part of the overall diet.

Ric has his own farm milking 120 cows where 1 labour unit is employed for 4 days per weel with Ric doing the milking on the other 3.
A contractor is used to make the silage on farm and is also used to feed the cows. This frees up Ric to work with Agrifirm and to become more involved with off farm agriculture politics.

Robotic milking was on the agenda while in the Netherlands and so I took the opportunity to meet with Jeroen Van Vejk.
Jeroen is milking around 120 cows on 32ha in a barn system with two De Leval robots.
There is a premium for the milk if the cows are grazed outside, which Jeroen tried last year.
This resulted in much 25% reduction in milk solids and an increase in animal health problems.
He has decided the premium is not enough to warrent continuing and has reverted to the default system.
Jeroen is trying different crops to try to be more efficient these include peas and the really interesting one, hemp ....!

Thanks so much to Henk and Djuke for the hospitality.

CNH Zedelgem

Arrived in London after an overnight flight from  New York. I have a few hours up my sleeve to get to the train station and head to Bruges in Belgium.

Spent the morning with Luc Ollevier touring CNH Zedelgem plant where all the forege harvesters and large square balers for the world market are built. The CR and CX combines for a large proportion of the world market also come out of Zedelgem.
Luc started with New Holland in 1968 and was in charge of sales in Africa and the Middle East. He lays claim to one of the biggest orders ' on one sheet of paper' being 400 combines to Saudi Arabia.

Luc left the company in 1991 with the Ford New Holland restructure, but has returned in his retirement to conduct tours of the facility. This is he does very well and has ahuge knowledge of the Company and product.

There over 2000 staff employed, 500 of which are in development. The plant uses 145000 tonnes of steel and 125000 litres of paint each year.

The process starts with parts coming infrom selected foundries who supply many of the castings for gearboxes and drives etc. These are then machined to specifications on site.
All steel framing and panels are produced on site my amix of manual labour and some very sophisticated robot technology.

About 25 combines are produced each day and so much of the robotic equipment is able to perform various tasks, the milling machine for example has 160 tools to choose from - and has also been tought to put them away when finished !
The painting process then takes place, which is a powder baked process and provides a high quality finish.

Assembly then takes place and uses a clever system where small ' feeder' assembly line build particular areas of the machine ie cab, rotors, cleaning area, engine units etc. these are then added to the main assembly line which moves in 20 minute intervals.

The cabs are built in France by a subsidiary, and as there has been significant investment in the design, the cabs are also sold to other manufacturers for applications in beet harvesting for example.
The headers are built in the CNH plant in Poland, the same plant that builds the round balers. Though some of the components requiring precision machining are built in Zedelgem.

The plant boasts a huge visitor centre and conference facility that has equipment on display dating back to the founding of the Company through to the most up to date combines and balers.
The centre caters for 8000 visitors per year.
Thanks to Luc for the 5 hour tour and to CNH for a graet tour and a huge lunch !

Mid West to New York.

Arrived into Omaha Nebraska fom Calgary via Denver, just as the rain began pelting down in Colorado, causing major flooding and loss of life.

First visit was to meet Bart Ruth, a long time friend of Jim Geltch of Nuffield International. Bart farms on around 2000 ac with his son Geoff. The farm is growing corn and soya beans. There is some land share farmed on either a 50/50 basis or 60/40 basis, with a very small amount on a price per ac.

Demand for corn from overseas as well as a strong domestic market in the form of ethanol production, has seen the price rallying to new heights in recent times. Prices up over $ 8.00 a bu being reached and are now sitting at around $ 4.60 - $ 5.00 a bu.

About five years ago two dairy units were set up to milk between 5 to 6 thousand cows each. These dairies have limited land attached to them and are almost totally reliant on the surrounding farms for corn, with alfalfa being sourced from as far away as Arizona, mainly to guarantee the quality perameters are met.

The corn silage price is agreed upon by using a formula based on the corn price for the area and currently sits at around $40 per ton.

The need for the dairy units to have land to spread the effluent has led to new opportunities for Ruth Farms and others in the area to receive these nutrients back on to the farm.
This happens in two ways:

• firstly in liquid form through a network of some 100 km of underground 250mm PVC piping to centre pivot irrigators.

• Secondly by the injection of slurry from the settling ponds which are cleaned out twice a year.

The PVC piping is laid at the dairy farms expense and the application is also carried out by dairy staff. The cost of the slurry injection is typically $300 per ha and this cost is shared 50/50. Injecting is done at a rate of 50 000 litres per ha or 5 mm.

This provides the ability to grow a 220bu corn crop without the need for artificial fertiliser. The system works very well for both parties involved.

However, because the dairy is fully indoor and the cows are fed a TMR, the system in it's present form would fit only a small number of farms in New Zealand. But with this in mind the concept is very sound and with some adaption is an option worthy of consideration.

Charlie and Margaret Carter Thorntown Indiana are farming dairy cows on a grassed based system. Milking 120 smaller framed holstein Friesian cows in a mixed or hybrid system. Feed is made up of 50% pasture, 30% forage (corn or silage) and 20% grain.

Production is 18 500lb milk per cow - a little below the State average of 21 300lb. This is very good when considering nearly all the dairy herds in Indiana are in a high cost TMR system. Dry seasons have meant that more suppliments are required than ideal.

• Farm is 220 in total and is husband and wife labour - with help from their daughter, who is married and to a hay contractor and lives in the local town.

• Forage is grown on farm and grain (corn, cotton seed, distillers grain hulls) are bought in from an upstate co-op, where there is a bigger area of dairy and more options.

• Most of the local area is in beans and corn - 40% of US corn goes to ethanol production.

• Milk is supplied to a co op about an hour away.

• Hay is made in may from excess grass and corn is produced annually.

• There is no artificial fertiliser used on the farm.

Because the farm carries less than 300 cows and has land attached the is no environmental regulation to adhere to. The effluent is injected into fields where possible and is spread on top discreetly when necessary. These operations are carried out by a contractor.

A very hands on business for the husband and wife team. When Charlie talks about the fact that the milking parlour needs replaced, I can't help but think this would be the ideal situation to install a robotic milking system. This would not only overcome the shed replacement but also free up some time for the two of them to enjoy some free time...

On the road again.. this time its Ohio to see Tony Anderson just outside of Washington Courthouse.

Tony farms about 3 000ac and has a farm equipment business with his brother Doug. The farm grow mainly corn and beans some of which are late crop, being after wheat. Equipment is on RTK and fert is done by variable rate - that is : spreading is done by a contractor.

N is typically applied in liquid form and is stored on farm in a bunded 30 000 l tank. This is being seen as a viable alternative to solid or adhydrous N that is susceptible to leaching and volatilisation. Liquid N, on the other hand can be taken straight in by plant.

Corn yeilds are typically 200 220 bu.

Wheat is harvested with a stripper header, this allows the crop to be harvested earlier and increases the window to get the late beans in 10 - 14 days earlier, which can mean the difference between getting a crop or not.

Tony is a county commissioner and was the President of the American Soyabean Association. He tells me the EPA is introducing legislation next year that will limit the amount of fertiliser that can be applied based on soil types?

Tony is trying to get people from the local university to develop a program that will give the exact amount of grain produced from each of the feriliser components needed to grow a crop. This would then give a value of those nutrients and thereby give a template for him to use in setting price for the fertiliser. As opposed to the current system where the fert company takes as much profit as it thinks the farmer can afford.

Thursday 19th July is spent at the New Holland Plant Pennsylvania.

Philip Eby
Product Marketing Manager
Crop Preparation Products

John Daniels
Plant Manager

Plant builds,
Round balers
Small square balers
Mowers, both trailed and attached
Manure spreaders
Cyicle mowers for China mostly.

The plant houses the finance and administration for the entire company.


Product evaluation is also done here and sees many of the units undergoing feild simulated testing. A bump track had a Case 8230 combine being driven across it with auger folded out and being put through its paces over the period of a days work. The driver also looked like he had done a days work when he emerged from the cab!

Several climate controlled booths are used to simulate various temperatures and fluctuations, particularly important with the tier 4 emmission standards. While the engine manufacturers do their own testing, the environment is much different for an engine on a combine or forage harvester with many parisitic features attached to them.

Spray boom frames and combine cleaning shoes are also put through various stress tests on jigs that replicate thousands of hours of use.

Hydraulic systems are attached to the equipment to simulate loadings equivalent to field conditions.
The BR series baler is undergoing a model change and this will go into production for next season.

The machining building produces many of the components for not only the equipment built in PA but also for the windrowers and equipment produced at other plants throughout the US.

Thanks to John and Phil for their time and providing a detailed tour. 

The week ends with some time in the Catskills area north of New York where the Hudson River catchment begins.

Alberta Canada.

Calgary Airport 11pm on a Saturday night, not many people around, the guys at the rental car companies are keen to get off home.

But I'm keen to pick up the rental car and get going! After booking a compact car I plan to go towards Champion, two hours south. But before I get my hands on the keys, the attendant tells me I have a choice, a Boss Mustang or a GMC 2500 pick up! l'm thinking neither of them will have the environmental footprint of a small country so I may as well go for ease of parking and handling characteristics.

I get settled in the Mustang and head out the airport, the Sat Nav and the roads don't agree with each other. It appears the airport is undergoing an overhaul and nothing is making sense. To top it off its pouring with rain and its midnight.

I was sure pleased to get to Champion and our very good friends Jo and Byron Matlocks house at around 2. 30 am. The note on the door directed me to the appropriate room and it felt like being at home and only yesterday since Heather, Molly and I were here 3 years ago.

It's harvest time at Matlock Farms but as its nearly done, Aaron, one of Jo and Byrons two sons, make the decision that as its Sunday, they will take a day out from harvest and have a BBQ later in the day with the family and some close friends. Eric, the other son, worked for us in NZ for a few summers driving a combine. He and his wife Alena join me on some local visits over the next few days.

First up a beef fedlot. A well set up unit with highly efficient handling system to cope with the 40-thousand odd cattle enables the weighing and recording as well as animal health aspects to be administered in an efficient manner.

The feed mill is near new and features some innovaive technology including computerised mixing and feeding where the truck driver delivering the feed to a particular pen can't leave the area until the appropriate amount has been fed out. Likewise, the system won't let the driver feed a product to a pen that isn't to receive the mix that is on the truck.

While at the feedlot, it is suggested we take a look at the Hutterite community just up the road. They are more than happy to host us for a couple of hours. Firstly the children show us their school which has 26 students and 2 teachers. The kitchen is more like a food  factory with facilities for killing livestock through to canning food. The ladies give us a sample of the pickled cauliflower they are working on.

The community was set up four years ago so all the infastructure is in great shape, as the population grows the community will buy another 3-5 thousand ac and start the process again.

The dairy unit involves 80 cows and has potiential to do many more and boasts some of the most up-to-date technolgies you will find anywhere.

The same goes for the Workshop which covers maybe 5000 sq metres and can handle any work required by the farm and takes in a lot of outside work. An example of this being a series of prefabricated steel sheds similar to the workshop.

The Hutterites tend to get blamed for pushing the price of land above its productive value, which is $10 000 ac and more in some areas. Tax laws on low labour costs perhaps give the Hutterites the upper hand...

We spend some time at a hay processing plant that Eric used to supply to when he run a baling contract business.

Greene Prairie International was set up 25 years ago and presses bales into more dense bales and allows 22 tonne into containers. Eighty containers a week are shipped and this to increase this to 150 in the next year or so.

• Most of the product is either alfalfa or timothy and is shipped to Japan, South East Asia and Saudi Arabia.

• A very simple press system is used in the process with various sizes produced to suit the particular requirements.

• Quality is of particular importance and the company is becoming more involved with the grower rather than buying product on the spot market.

My last meeting in Alberta is with Ryan Arbers who operates a Lamb feedlot in Acme Alberta Canada.
Ryan and his father took over the 80ac site five years ago, after it having been used as a pig breeding research facility.

The unit compliments the breeding property a couple of hours north near Edmonton, with lambs sent down to Acme for finishing along side bought in lambs.

A total of 50 000 lambs are finished each year many of which are sourced throughout Western Canada and North West US. The lambs are bought in 36 kg liveweight and are feed for 90 days and go out at about 54 kg.

One of the challenges has been to get bigger lines of lambs to help improve consistancy with the lambs and ultimately, the product.

Lambs are transitioned for a period of 4 weeks when they arrive at the feedlot. Grain is introduced at this time and the amount is increased gradually until if forms the entire diet. This begins at 250gms per day and over the 28 days will be increased to 1.25 kg and at that stage the lambs are fed ad-lib without any acidosis issues.

Lambs are EID tagged and are regularly weighed to keep a track of performance using Tru Test and Racewell technology.

Liveweight gain is costing about NZ $2.70 kg so not something that will be econonomically viable in NZ at current prices.

An interesting afternoon and thanks to Ryan for his time in showing me his system.

It's been a great few days in Alberta and as always, the Matlock's make us like family. Thanks for everything guys.

Sacramento and San Francisco

Getting into San Francisco airport at lunchtime means I'll have an easy two hour drive to Sacramento right? 

No, its stop and go for close to 4 hours and I still haven't got over the Bay Bridge! By the time I get close to Davis I decide to call it and day and look for somewhere to stay. 

Driving up the interstate there is no shortage of options, so head for a small town called Woodland. A rural service town with a huge tomato processing factory. I wonder if I can get a tour there... 'No not this week sorry'.

The Central Valley is one worlds most productive agricultural regions and is big on agriculture - but not the agriculture we are used to seeing in NZ. Vast ares of tomatoes, hence the factory. Corn, almonds, grapes and avocados also feature a lot.

A meeting with Deanne Meyer Ph.D, who is a livestock waste management specialist gives me an insight into the research and focus activities on the current and future needs of the livestock industries in the Central Valley region.

A trip into the Capay Valley region gave the opportunity to stop in at Full Belly Farms. An organic farm producing a variety of crops all year around and provides employment for up to 60 employees and selling produce both online and through a weekly farmers market, on the farm.

As luck would have it, I'm due to fly to Calgary on Saturday evening and have a few spare hours to take in the first day of racing in the Americas Cup regatta!

It's to good of an oportunity to miss - still regretting turning down Rolling Stones ticket  in Washington DC!

It was great to be a part of the celebration with two wins from two on the first day. The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was brilliant. Piers overflowing with people - a lot of whom were Kiwi's. 

As I headed back to the airport it became apparent that l wouldn't see too much more of the action from San Francisco bay in the media while in Canada or the US for that matter. No sign of it on any advertising or sport channels even.

Too many other sports to be bothered with a bunch of yachts I suppose...

Heading to California

Today I am heading off overseas for the the fourth time in seven months on my Nuffield travels.
This time the emphasis is on my study topic ,'The Synergies Synergies Between Between Arable And Dairy' - with a focus on nutrients.
I am looking forward to pulling the study together and meeting the people around the globe who are going to help me do that.
Of all the trips I have made in the last seven months, I would have to say that today was the hardest to leave home.

Nuffield is a great experience and it is not only about the individual but also the people around you. These are the people who have to take up the slack and deal with the day to day stuff going on, like the car that needs serviced, the drain thats blocked and mess to clean up after the river has ripped through the bottom paddock!
Heather is doing a great job holding the fort while I am tearing off around the world.   l'm Iooking forward to a settled year ( by our our standards ) next year !

The later part of the winter has been kind to us in Southland. This has this has taken pressure off feed supplies as the grass has started growing a month earlier than usual.
Ground preparation is also well underway for the spring sown cereals, although planting won't get underway for another fortnight at least.

Autumn sown crops are looking very good -almost too good, amd had a fungicide fungiciand the first shot of N.
So the plan for me is to be researching my study in the US, Canada and Europe before heading home on 11 October.

First stop will be spend four days in the Sacramento and Central Valley area before heading up to Alberta, Canada.

Time Out!

Monday 14th July

Well the seven week Global Focus Program is finished.

Its been an incredible journey, from Australia and through Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Louisiana, Washington DC, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Ireland and now I'm in the UK for three weeks to have some time out with Heather and spend some time recharging the batteries !

It seems quite odd to not have to be somewhere, be it a meeting, an airport or just focusing on the day ahead. 

Heather's brief to me before she left home was "I don't know, you just plan what you think"

Ookaay, I've been caught with this one before !

When Heather arrived  at Heathrow, I had underestimated how long the tube takes to get from the Embankment out to the airport. This left heather at the airport for around 30 minutes before I got there to find her on her second beer - at 6.45 am !

Great start Scholar !

So after a day in London its on a plane back to Ireland (not Ryanair!) and pick up a rental car in Dublin. The car was to have Sat Nav, but apparently they've run out ! The attendant tries to make good by telling me how easy it is to navigate around Ireland and proceeds to give verbal directions and even throws in some hand and arm gestures as well. 

I have to interrupt him and tell him I've just spent a week here and Ireland is actually a s..t of a place to find your way around for a lad from the south of the South Island NZ . even with Sat Nav. 

In all honesty, I think it was easier without !

We are headed to Donegal for a few days to catch up with some relations who live on the farm my Grandfather grew up on. He and his mate emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 19 because there was no work. Mmmm still happens from time to time...

Before he left Ballyshannon, he and his mate had spent much of their time building stone fences and really didn't see a future in it so they headed south.

There was a couple of spots where it appeared he hadn't finished so we thought it only fitting that I should 'finish it off' !

The house where my grandfather grew up

Before you know it we are heading to Suffolk for the weekend to catch up with the 
team from the Worshipful Company of Farmers Business Management Course back in January.

The weekend organised by Matt Hawthorne and held at Euston Estate near Thetford where Matt is the Farm Manager. It was a great weekend and Matt had some things lined up for us with the dinner on Friday night at the Angel in Bury St Edmonds where we got to catch up and  got to meet spouses.

Below is and exert ( actually its the whole thing!) from Chris Padfield's 'WCF13' newsletter

What a great first reunion of the 62nd WCF.  Matthew pulled out all the stops and set the bar very high (to mix organ and high jump metaphors) for future events!

Some nineteen people attended the evening meal at The Cadogan , Ingham, well done to Tom and Emily, and Chris J for last minute changes of plan which enabled them to attend. Gordon gains a special mention for spending  7 1/2 hours in a queue 'up north', completely missing the meal. Matthew continued his obsession with Christine Tacon with a speech on the planned events (which didn't include barges, old cars or cement mixers) ably assisted by the best looking easel I have seen used in a presentation. Hugh arrived late but no attention was drawn to this or  the absolute stuffing the Aussies had just received at Lords.  The British Lions tour may have been referred to at intervals.

Saturday started with a presentation from Andrew Blenkiron at the Euston Estate office covering the vision, workings of the estate and planned AD and solar park.  This was followed by a trip around the bird rearing pens, crops, lime pits, maize and reservoir.  Jeff found his profession by having a large horn to attract the attention of the game keepers (Lee and Matthew).

All the forest animals remember where they were when Bambi's mother got shot, all those on the reservoir embankment will remember where they were when Matt B repeatedly trod on a leveret causing repeated screams. I forget how many litres the reservoir holds but think of a big number then add noughts (sorry that was the conversation about banker's bonuses).   

Kate and Matthew's Mum laid on a splendid lunch with a vote of thanks following using the Giles Hanglin technique (ask Chris Lenny to do it!).  A tour of the grounds followed with some really interesting developments planned including  the lake and pleasure gardens.  Many of us were impressed that that front lawn was so big they were round baling the grass.  Special mention must go to the estate's archivist, Edward (Mr Memory) who supplied all relevant details regarding the estate including the history of the church, temple, commissioned gates, school and the 11 warships named 'Grafton'.  I can't remember where my family left its boat.

A visit to Abery Farms followed, who work alongside Matthew to produce onions and potatoes though they grow a range of crops.  They had some particularly big sheds, some recently erected (yes I was tempted to rearrange that sentence) with particular care taken to store onions for long periods.  At the end of the tour it was particularly interesting to compare the 'natural' landscape of the army firing range (think of 'Out of Africa') with the highly irrigated potato and onion beds.

Matt thoughtfully concluded the trip with a visit to Shadwell Stud which was highly impressive.  For most, it was the first time to see a 'covering yard' with, quite literally, a humping mound in the middle for those stallion lacking in 'reach'.  Apparently covering can last up to 120 seconds which is a bigger number than I normally can count up to.  The yards and fields were immaculately kept.

Thanks must go to Matt for organising the whole event, not least the minibus which enabled us to travel and drink together, even as Matt stayed sober all weekend.  Future reunions may struggle to provide private churches, temples, mansions and official historians.  Reference must also be made to Gordon for 'obtaining' the official WCF photo taken outside the RAC and displayed at the evening meal at the Guildhall.  He lugged this photo all around London after the event  and then  back to Preston.  The photo has now been handed over to Jeff and Karen who have kindly offered to host the next reunion probably about a month earlier in late June 2014.

Steve and Heather Wilkins

Michael and Karen Mclaren

Matthew and Kate Hawthorne

Chris and Kathy Lenny

Dan Matthews

Matt Bell

Jeff and Karen Wilson

Hugh, Abby, and Ruby Bailey

Tom and Emily Bradshaw

Gordon Whitford

Chris Jinks

Chris Padfield

Mowing the lawns at Euston Estate

Recent development includes this irrigation storage facility .

Not every farm has its own church ! or 120 homes and a village or two !

Next Stop France......

Outside the Lourve.

Inside the Lourve !

I don't know what all the fuss is about !

One of the most romantic places on Earth !

Stay tuned for Scotland....