Canadian Nuffielder Jim Halford 1975 will be inducted along with 4 others into the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame later in 2010. Jim pioneered the development and adoption of zero-till farming. His revolutionary equipment design “Conserva Pak” provided a seeding system that allowed farmers to seed while applying fertilizer in one pass. Jim was also instrumental in the creation of the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association.

How many of us remember driving through new and beautiful landscapes thinking I can’t believe I’m here. All alone, no cell phone coverage, just time to think, drive and be inspired by Creation as you make your way to the next destination. Oh, and reminding yourself to stay on the left side of the bloody road, Canuck! It’s amazing how one phone call to a perfect stranger can lead to warm hospitality, engaging conversations and new friendships. The first stop on my independent study was New Zealand and then, for the second time in twelve months, I was off to Australia.

I learned three important things about my study topic, precision farming technologies, that I could take home and apply to our farming system. First, precision technology and economies of scale are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to improve profitability through scale and precision technology like variable rate fertilizer, gypsum, lime, controlled traffic tram lines and inter-row seeding. Second, I discovered the little things in our production system we could manage better. Things like compaction, leaf senescence, capturing solar energy through seeding direction, seeding rates, fungicides and soil amendments. Finally, after staying with the current and former Guinness World Record Holders for wheat yield, I learned that their record wheat crops were grown on pea stubble, seeded two years after grass breaking, and on six-inch row spacing. Nitrogen, growth regulators and fungicides were applied at the same growth stages on soils you’d never think capable based on soil test results. Oh, and they both spent a fraction more producing fifty percent higher yields than the average. Spending time with two gentlemen so passionate about grain farming was the highlight of my trip.

Now, the answers to questions I never thought I was searching for. The first one is home. As a husband and father of a Nuffield baby, born 15 weeks early on March 28th, 2008 during my Global Focus Tour, I’ve spent a lot more time with family since I came home and will continue to make them a priority. I realized how easy it was to sacrifice family with the excuse of “work” to shoulder the blame. Next, the plans for growing our agronomy, farm, publishing and carbon offset businesses came clear to me somehow. Perhaps it was the ability to stop thinking about work for a while and occupy my mind with understanding others and their successes, challenges and futures in agriculture. Perhaps it was the fresh air in that remote end of the world along the southern tip of Western Australia. Whatever it was, I am very thankful for the opportunity to grow personally and professionally.

I still have another three weeks of travel planned before I hand in my report in November. I have four more record holders to visit and several new Nuffield friends to stop in and see. I sure look forward to stimulating and challenging conversations about agriculture and the world around us. For those of you who are interested, I offer my weekly publication for free to Nuffield Scholars. Beyond Agronomy News is a crop production and grain market e-newsletter written by yours truly. If you’d like to be added to the subscriber list, just drop me an e-mail at stevebeyondagronomycom .

Have a great year.

Sincerely,

Steve Larocque,
2007 Canadian Nuffield Scholar

I was there from Feb 1971 until August of that year. I drove some 16,000 miles in a Ford Escort that the MMB kindly provided for my use.  I visited over 100 dairy farms, made friends that are still on our mailing list and count my time in the UK as one of the highlights of my life. I took some good advice and when I returned home took almost two weeks before returning to the rigours of dairy farming to complete my report and submit it to Nuffield Lodge. After my return, I did something over twenty speaking engagements that winter.  I think I spoke to almost all the annual meetings of farm organizations in East-Central Ontario!

When I returned to the farm in August ‘71, we proceeded to continue the job of helping my father rebuild the business. I am proud to say that two years from the time of the fire, we had doubled the output of milk from our farm with the same labour force and the same acreage.

We subsequently had two more children (1973 and 1975) and I got head over heels into community organizations.  Local Fair board President, Board of Governors of Community College, local Co-op board, church board, Chamber of Commerce, acting as local fire chief, 4-H leader, etc….  The same sort of drill as most scholars have gone through in their communities.

In 1992 with all our children off to University and not on the farm, we sold the dairy herd and two years later the home farm.  I then became a director/adjuster with a local farm mutual insurance company. In late 1992, my wife’s widowed mother, who had been operating a family campground business on a lake near home, wanted to retire so we morphed into campground operators.  We expanded the small operation a bit and now still operate with a few cottages and 55 seasonal camp sites.  We move 6 miles south each spring, live on the lake until Thanksgiving and then move home for the winter, except for two months that we spend in South Carolina playing at golf.  I am still actively involved with the insurance business and act as secretary to the local lake association.  My advice to those approaching retirement age…don’t retire.., reinvent yourself.  There are lots of opportunities out there for recycled farmers!  Many of us old folks haven’t decided what we want to be when we grow up.

While the Nuffield program has changed immeasurably, it is most rewarding to see the enthusiasm, the spirit and the quality of scholars that we still send abroad. We still keep in touch with friends that we made in my travels throughout the UK. I sometimes think that if the program had been more widely advertised and we had the quality of candidates then that we have now, I would never have even been in the running.  While retired from farming and in other lines of business now, at 70 years of age I still count my term as a Nuffield Scholar as the most rewarding experience of my life and one of my proudest accomplishments. Almost up there with the fact that Gayle and I have been happily married for 47 years, have three fine kids, each with at least two university degrees, each with an outstanding spouse and we have four of the cutest grandkids in the world