'It was unreal': Nuffield scholar's global tour highlights scale, innovation

Wellington's Jack Courts, who is the farm manager for Mumblebone Merinos while also running Glenalbyn Santa Gertrudis stud, will study maternal efficiencies as part of his scholarship.

Mr Courts has completed the initial trips organised by Nuffield, which included the global focus tour.

So far, this has involved travelling to Brazil, the USA, the United Kingdom and Europe as part of a study group.

Mr Courts said the group met with industry leaders and researchers and toured some large-scale operations that ranged from cheese production to pecan farms.

The sheer scale of some of the Brazilian operations was mindblowing, he said.

"We went to one business that was a million acres under a double cropping system of cotton and soybean," he said.

"It's just unfathomable - 4500 people working for them. That was a family-owned business."

He said the major Brazilian operators were always striving to improve efficiencies and there was significant investment poured into research.

The Embrapa, which is the country's equivalent to the CSIRO, had been particularly interesting and JBS was also a very good host, flying in managers from various sites to meet with the study group, he said.

The scale of operation was an ongoing theme, including an Irish oyster farm that bought a million oysters seeds a year and grew them out.

The innovation in some of the German systems was another feature, he said.

Mr Courts recalled one farm that had 40 hectares of greenhouses about half an hour outside Berlin.

The greenhouses were heated from the excess heat produced by a chemical plant that was standing alongside.

"You look at things like that and just the innovation - this waste heat is worth nothing to anyone, so you build a greenhouse next to it," he said.

"What really became apparent was its either scale, or niche, and becoming really innovative and efficient in what you do.

"That was a theme across the globe. How you're value adding to your product from farm to market or how you're just mass producing."

While the visits were fascinating, travelling with the tour group itself was another highlight.

Mr Courts said the group included 11 people from seven countries and backgrounds from all sectors of agriculture.

"There's a lot to learn there, just driving around in a bus or a car with that group of people," he said.

"The conversations that arise, particularly off the back of a visit somewhere, become quite stimulated.

"They're all there to learn, you've got that in common, you've got agriculture in common, and a passion for it.

"That was just as fascinating as the visits."

The tour involved 18 airplane rides in 6.5 weeks, but Mr Courts said the trip left him even more motivated for his individual travel component.

This will involve three weeks in the UK to meet with producers who are performance recording, vets, and universities researching maternal efficiencies.

He will use the Nuffield network and also contacts from his sponsor, Meat and Livestock Australia.

He then planned to travel to New Zealand in February.

He encouraged people to consider putting in a Nuffield Scholarship application before it closed at the end of the month.