With the Brazilian group arriving in Dunedin tomorrow, I will be out on the road until late Sunday night. This means that I am unlikely to be able to update the blog for a few days, but it should be very interesting after the road trip that Abacus have got planned! Below is a brief itenary for the next few days:
Wednesday - Introduction to Abacus and short presentation from me about work at Innovis. The afternoon will involve a trip to Invermay Agricultural Centre on the outskirts of Dunedin to view the CT scanner facility, and for a talk/ viewing on the legume Lucerne.
Thursday - The day will be focused on the integration of sheep and beef with cereal cropping, including a farm visit at Telford Rural Polytechnic. The afternoon will involve a drive south towards Invercargill for a visit to the Alliance Group to hear about how NZ farmers are paid for what they produce and to understand meat grading and evaluation in NZ.
Friday - The focus of the day is on research, genetics and processing, with a farm visit in the morning to focus on the gross margins of incorportating high performance sheep with cereal crops. A visit to Woodlands research farm in the afternoon should be particularly relevant, looking into high performance sheep farming and sheep genetic technologies.
Saturday - A visit to Mt Linton, one of the largest privately owned stations in New Zealand will give an insight into large scale development programs and sheep genetics with scale. This will be followed by a drive towards Te Anau to visit Leon Black (Blackdale Stud), breeder and Director of Beef and Lamb NZ.
Sunday - The final day will start with a visit to Mt Nicholas near Queenstown and to visit the Landcorp Mararoa Station for an insight into corporate farming. The afternoon will be spent at Mount Nicholas Station to see how things operate in a high country sheep station, before heading back to Dunedin late that evening.
As you can see, I'm sure there will be plenty of photos and plenty to talk about next week!
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