Steve Ball, Riverton South Australia.

Back to Adelaide, Currently staying with Steve Ball, Nufflied scholar 2010. The home of the invented seed cleaner and pickerel (Hannaford). Visited Helen Thomas Nuffield 2010, Mark Branson nuffield 2005 and Precision farming expert and adopter, John Rohde free range egg chicken farmer. John Gladigau Nuffield Scholar 2007, MD of collaborative Farming Australia. Steve and Nicki where wonderful hosts and i thank them and everyone else for there time.

Cray Fish for tea

Kangaroo Island, i made it to stay with Ben. i was given a beer at the airport and taken off for a tour of the island. We looked at the islands new grain silo handling facility, and off to see the capital of the Island. Scottish steak and cray fish for tea and more beer. Next day i meet and had a tour around another island Nuffield scholar Andrew Heinrich's sheep enterprise.
Peter a young euthusiastic farmer on the island then took me to see local farmers planting potatoes and a marron operation (fresh water Cray fish). In the evening i gave a talk in a hotel to about 40 young farmers about PX Farms and farming in the UK. I would like to thank Andrew for inviting me to talk to the group and arranging my travel, i enjoyed the evening and meet some fantastic people.

First and last night in WA

Ralph (step brother) and Liz who emigrated in 2006 to Joondalup a northern suburb of Perth kindly put me up, on my first night in WA and my last before Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. Exciting news Ralph oldest is getting married at 22 yr old and daughter 20 yr old got engaged whilst i was here. When i rang mother to tell her see got confused on the line and thought i'd said i got engaged.

Geraldton cathedral North of Perth

I went to see Dr Paul Blackwell at Geraldton North of perth who is an expert in Controlled traffic farming or as he calls it Tramline farming which makes sense. He kindly saw me on a saturday and took time out of his weekend. We ran through the merits of controlled traffic and the practical hurdles. Im grateful for the time he gave me and the scones and english tea.

David Fulwood

David Fulwood Nuffield Scholar. I know why they call these a Mother Bin. 85 tonnes of lupins as a standing hopper, just over 3 metres so could easily work in the UK. David showed me his photos of his time on his Nuffield travels. He recently took a global focus group to East Europe and it was good to see some familiar faces. David was gettig stuck into lupin harvest. Controlled traffic farming and over laying 10 years of maps to determine the good and bad parts of the fields. Where to invest and where not to farm. Making GPS technology work for you.

God father of Australian No till

Ray Harrington took time out of harvest to take me to his farm and show me the Harrington Seed destructor. Towed behind his combine it takes the chaff and crushes the seed. 98% of ryegrass seed travels through the chaff and is destroyed lowing the numbers. Seeing is believing and i was able to witness the process as he combined. As Ray explained its all a numbers game. Hopefully in the future this technology will be available as standard on combines through out the world. Good luck with Harvest Ray and thanks again for showing me.

AG MASTER SEEDER TINES

Mike kindly showed me around the AGmaster factory where they produce direct drill tines to work in high wearing soils. Complete tine and pipe brackets where manufactured to fit 30 different combinations.