France, BAYER Cerez.

On the train from Paris to Basel in Switzerland at the moment, what a way to see the glorious French country side, scorching along at around 290km/h, very comfortable way to get around, will take approx 3:10mins not bad!
Farming wise in France at the moment, corn harvest is still underway with preparation for cereal sowing well underway, a good mix of tillage and direct sowing taking place, a lot of different machines in use that we are not used to seeing so quite interesting. Also in the middle of sugar beet harvest, which again we don't see in Australia with cane being our main source of sugar.
Yesterday was a visit to the BAYER facility Cerez, with hosts, Gregory Ginisty, Isabelle Demoulin and Stephane Trouillet. Also a big thanks to the rest of the team, who showed me around a very impressive facility. Was very interesting to see the film coating division and the product range featuring a number of products that we have not seen in Australia, this was as I expected when I started my Nuffield I have always suspected that there would be products out there which would make our job so much easier but for whatever reason don't seem to make it to the Australian market, maybe we can rectify this over time.
At Cerez, main activities are Pelleting of sugar beet seed with some use of primed seeds for the Western European markets, formulation of the film coatings peridium range, vast testing of every component and also 27ha of trials. On the trials site they use a very unique fully automated spray applicator, which is enclosed to allow of spraying in all weather conditions, very impressive.

After the visit we headed back to Fontainebleau where I was staying about a 40min trip, Fontainbleau is the place where Napolean lived and the castle there is quite amazing, very grand and as with everything in Europe steeped in history.
With the first section of the castle built in the 14th century there are a number of stages of building with at a guess the last major addition in the late 18th century, there were a number of small lakes which had some big carp in them, interestingly carp were food for the kings in the early ages. Bit different in Australia!!

I've just looked up on the screen and we have just hit 317km/h, I like trains when they go this fast!! Looking out the window reminds me of the country side from Castlemaine to Ballarat in Victoria, only covered in corn crops??

I am slowly learning how to travel cheaply in Europe, accommodation is still quite expensive, but if you can avoid taxis and hotel food the rest is no more expensive than Australia, whilst in Fontainebleau Greg took me out for two fantastic meals with a sample of the local delicacies, including snails and goose liver, not bad once you get over what your actually eating, at this point I'm not sure who eats more parts of an animal, the French or Chinese?? So far on the trip I have not so much as sniffle, which is great, weather wise most of the trip has been about 18-25 degrees C so just right really.

Until next time, stay tuned.