Munich organic engineering tech and fruit

Sat 5th November

Met with Dr. Klaus Wiesinger from the Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL) -

Institut für Agrarökologie, Ökologischen Landbau und Bodenschutz. He had kindly put a programme of vists together for me.

First visit of the day was to an organic farmer and agroforester and serial inventor....!. Things of note were that not only washe doing some interesting timber agroforestry and had research trials on teh farm with the ag institurt but also was generating his own energy with a wood gasification plant (to use the timber as woodchip) and PV panells, bot generated energy which he used to dry silage into hey in an inovate bunker system with underfloor vents and a crane in teh roof of the building to load in and out!!......also he had a cobvered composting system....what an inovator.

Biodynamic Biogass Deutche Technic!

Friday 4th November 2011
Left Switzerland at 6am, driving east and north, past Zurich and caught in traffic then lots and lots of tunnels to St Galen around the lake and into Austria breifly then into Germany...immediatly the tunnels dispear and the road quality improved, silky smooth tarmac...'Deutche-technic (Engineering)'......Travel north towards Munich to visit Her Miller nr Munich.
Seems I hit every road repair and closure going on this journey sending the TOm Tom into a nervpous breakdown....

He is a Biodaminic farmer with a passion for the soil like me......hi is also a pioneer and a business man. Sice 1991 he has run a 99ha farm organically....so same as us....but he has pulled together 25 farmers all stockless arable organic to develop a biogass project which has been running for 6 years. The novel part, not a maize plant in site and not an animal anywhere!//////// the 25 farms all have 2--30% clover in the rotation and this is the only material going into the biogass system. 250ha per year cut 4 times provides all the biomass for a 350kw/hr biogass plant through two fermenting reactors and 1 storage tank.....nothing else goes in not even water........20% loss of volume after biogass and a digestate fertaliser is left. this is applied back to the cash cereal crops on the clover supplying farms and results in a 25% uplift in cereal crop yields!
The second novel bit is x 4 large concrete silos or pits for the biomass silage...these have high sloping roofs all with PV panells on them - a second income stream......
Im hugley impressed. all the ludites in the UK renewable energy sector say ' it canbt be done' and you must grow maize............which is madness as it takes more energy to grow the maize than you get out of it!.....proving them wrong is a pioneering Bavarian farmer...'Deutche Technic'
We spend all day together talking about Biogass plants, engineering, tractors organbic farming, soils, politics, CAP reform etc.....His family gracefully invited me for lunch and I also ended up staying for dinner also......yet again I stumble accross a kindred spirit. Think I need to bring Her Miller to the UK.

Tomorow travels to north and west of Munich to see agroforestry, organic apple agroforestry (its catching!!!!!) and trails of cereals

Fibl & DOK trails

2 Nov 2011
Spent a 2nd day at Fibl at Frick. The morning with the DIrector Prof Urs Niggli looking at the site and all the research activities including : hemonoptra (fly) breeding on waste prodct and harvesting for fish food; wild flower and parasitoid research; vreiety breeding and testingh; homeopathy research; ectparatite research etc. Lots of discussion on information exchange, training and collaboration on an EU basis. Also potential for development of further agroforestry research and development activities.

Fibl have invested havily in new research facilities after purchasing their site from the local gov landowners a few years ago - they now have exclelent world class facilities.

Spent some time with Lukas Phiffner looking at apple research and visiting low input organic systems. some useful information on Codling moth systems.

In teh afternoon wnet by car to Basel to look at the DOK trial site started in 1978 comparing organic, bio-dynamic and conventional systems. Results = a convincing case for organic agriculture. What was realy notable to me was the huge level of active worms.

Another nite in sleeply Frick at the 1970s hotel Adler...tomorow an early start to Nr Munich Germany

Fibl Switzerland - Frick

2nd November 2011
Spent the day at Fibl Switzerland - The most important oreganic research centre in Europe, with branches in Germany, Austria and links to other research institutes.

Met with Paul Mader and discussed soil biology research and info exchange and looked at results from the DOK (organic vs biodynamic vs conventional) arable trials which have been continious since 1978. Discussed lots of past and present research and knowledge transfer.
Met Christian Schader and reviewed economic and socio-economic researh and got a better background on swiss agriculture, policy and support structures. Switzerland is not in the EU. As a direct democrasy in 1998 the citizens voted for support to maintain small mixed farms to preserve the landscape and rural social fabric. Farmers get CHF2000-3000 per ha per year suport for this. Farm sizes on average are small at 20ha. There are 60,000 farmers in switzerlan with over 6000 organic so 10%. Discussed the economic and social challenges and the 'RISE' tool used here to quantify.
The environment contrainsts, requirements and x complience is much stricter in swiz than EU, but curiously the proposed CAP reforms are very similar to the swiss model with 3 min arable croips (4 in swiss) and a 7% mandatory env area to recieve Pillar I support.

Met with Bernard Speiser to discuss plant protection and biodiversity research and visited the new work on min/ non inversion tillage. Sems wer are all thinking the same about reducing energy use and minimal disturbance in arable systems and a need ti nmove the game forward on low impact systems. lots of room for information exchange.

Spent some time with Andreas Gattinger discussing climate change issues and how organic farming can help address CC. also discussed the role of agroforestry and the opportunities for colaborative research to look at climate change and grenhouse gas emmisioin abatement via AF.
Spent some time with Hansueli Dierauer discussing arable systems, plant variert testing and selection, breding and wed control, cultivations etc etc etc...lots of opportunities for information exchage and knowledge transfer.
In the evening  Christian Schader kindly took me to look at the two main supermarkets in switzerland to look at the vast selection of organic products on sale. in gerneral there is LOTS more organic on offer in all teh supermarkets.

France to Switzerland

1 November
A public holiday in France, Germany, Switzerland etc.....all saints day
SO I travel...left Montpellier and drove north. Nimes, Avinion, Orange, Valence - across the french plains and time to reflect.......
France is a facinating country with a huge diversity. 20% under woodland / trees, lots of agroforestry and a passion for food. lots of organic products available and some interesting agriculture. A cultural heritage and language that is fiercly protected...but a language that is difficult and complex.......ie you have to get the 'tence' right...for example Le Bouret means to plough.... Without the 'le' it means pissed........so im in the field guesturing about plouging but saying you were pissed when you did this!!!!!!!

France also has a real passion for protecting it heritage, landscapes, cultures, language. I didnt know but by law 40% of all songs on the radio must be french!. there is even a minsitry departement for inventing french words for new items, for example when the wlakman was released the word walkman was frowned upon (aka ita american) and they invented the word 'balader' which must be used etc.

so I drive on.....Grenoble and into the mountains and into the mountains some more, breathtaking...then eventually I stoip for lunch at Annesy by the lake. a lovely place with canals, big open parks, a lake with mountins in the background and smnall cobbled streets, A lunch detour well deserved.

Then on to Geneva, around lake Geneva and heading east. Sadly my drive through switzerland and beside the lake was rather mundane as a heavy mist was covering all the veiws...what a shame....well that and the endless tunells you go through, some 2-5miles long....we realy dont do tunells in the UK but in switzerland they are part of everday life...and i lost count of how many i went through..

Eventually after 8.5 hrs in the car and 490 miles under my belt I arrived at Hotel Adler in Frick. Built in 1240 aparently and bosting modern conviences like a toilet, a shower and a phone in your room.......seem the pics of the 'recently renovated hotel' are c 1980, but its friendly and clean abiet noisy bing next to the main road...........If I lean out i can touch the passing trucks!...what sport!

Montpellier the hidden treasure

evening 31 Oct
Left Beziers and travelled to Montpellier to yet another F1 hotel cell....decided to venture into Montpellier city centre...all the guide books say 'big industrial town' and not much else.....well found the old part of the city and what a gem...lovely old strets and buildings and lots of people in party spirit.

Domaine Perdiguier Beziers

Monday 31 October
The plan was to be at INRA Montpellier all day but the researcher I had planned to meet became unavailable for the meeting. So at the last minuite I managed to arrange another meeting/visit to Domaine Perdiguier with Mr Jerrome Ferraci. He is a commercial farmer with some 600ha mainly arable but with a 30ha block of agroforestry with walnuts interplanted with conventional crops of maize, sorghum, wheat, OSR etc. We discussed the technical aspects of agropforestryt and what he woiuld do differently and policy etc....

Turns out that Mr Feracci is also a wine producer...so it semed rude not to look at his production, visit the wine sellar and do some tasting!....came away purchasing two cases......

Also turns out that the Chateau he lives in is 12 century, fab place and when renovating the disovered some 14th century frescos....stunning!

Carcassone

left Francois Gardeley De Soos farm and took a detour to the medieval city of Carcassonne...well what a place. Like robin hood on steroids...the most magnificent fortified castle with a city within on a hill....the scale of the place was extraordinary. Spent a cple of hours having a good look around. The pics say it all

Then travelled to nr Beziers in the dark for a meeting on a farm on Monday. Another nite in a F1 hotel cell……..they all look the same!

Domaine Mazy

Sunday spent the morning walking the farm with François and his son Martan looking at agroforestry with chestnut, cherry, walnut, almond, persimmon, plumb and honey locust trees with cereals and forage in alleys. he also has agroforestry in his vineyard which is excellent...and the wine from the vines is also fab!. He has applied many ecological and permaculture principles to field scale farming with impressive results.

spent 3 hrs walking the farm looking at afgroforestry. Ate grapes from the vines and fresh almonds from the trees. Noted that the grape pipe and shrived skins make excellent soil conditioners added back to the soil. Looked at olives and 200 year old mulbury trees being renovated for silk production. Was impressed by honey locust trees and lucerene ‘bushes’ – could be a useful under storey shrub in agroforestry.!!

They also have a Neolithic monument on the farm which is a French National heritage site. Apparently the Romans nicked half the stone to build houses!!!!...but they did bring grape vines in rtn I guess.

Then we had a full Sunday 5 course meal with the family 'al fresco' on a large table in the courtyard in the sun and 22 degrees warmth in late october...fab!. A comment from his wife was that ‘we were both in bliss talking about agroforestry which we are both passionate about’

Montpellier research INRA

Sat 28^th Oct

Sat had a long drive to north of montpellier to visit the INRA Vezenobres research site and to meet Fabien Liagre of AGROOF which was fab. v interesting long term agroforestry research with poplar and alley crops of cereals. Adjacent a farmer has adapted his agroforestry and used the trees as supports for overhead irrigation for organic vegetable production in the alleys between the trees....very novel!

Had a great lunch with Fabien Ligare at the medieval city of Vezenobres where they were having a 'festival of the fig' so had lunch with fig aperitif, fig and meat stew, fig desert and of course van rouge (but no figs!). we discussed research and technology transfer to farmers, farmer led research and policy in depth....seems there are many things we can collaborate on and look forward to developing a relationship.

Sat afternoon travelled towards montpellier and met Liddie Durfour from INRA at the Restinclieres research site, the main agroforestry research site in France, looked at the tree rows and species and controls with woodland. the impressive work is all the comparative analysis and modelling but also the root work with huge soil pits to measure root extension and growth as influenced by agroforestry. fantastic. These show that not only do trees in agroforestry root differently by putting roots down deeper (and thus more able to withstand wind/drought pressure) but that tree root paterns are modified by the alley cropping and root sytems can be up to 30% more extensive than under forestry conditions = more carbon!

After visiting the two research site made a quick stop at Montepllier to look at tye ‘Agro voltaic’ research – basically a framework which allows crops to be grown underneath and tractors/combines to be use beneath – fitted with different densities of PV panels to capture sun and generate electricity…two crops in one!. At a 50% density covering with PV panels little effect on crop performance put additional income from generation…..watch EDF Whitehall farm is gearing up!

Sat evening travled for 2.5 hrs by road to nr Carcassone to meet Francior Gardeley De Sous at his Massion du Mazzy. arrived late at 8pm in the dark but treated to a loveley supper and discussed agroforestry till started to nod off!....good sleep.