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The photos below are of the flood at Michael Pfitzner’s, and his neighbours, between Griffith and Rankins Springs, (along with a bogged boomspray from Richard Langley's Greenethorpe property), indicating some of the challenges facing our farmers as a result of some of the unusual rain events of recent months (bogged boomsprays being one of them). In what is considered a marginal cropping area, well away from any river system, this amount of water entering a property has the potential to cause untold damage, both short and long term. . .

To see an album of photos from the trip to Argentina click on this Facebook link. . .

We left Cruz Alta at 7.00 am and drove for 3.5 hours to Junín City to attend ExpoAgro. This is one of 2 large expo’s held in Argentina each year. We were met by Carlos Braga and his colleagues from Cideter. We each went our own way during the day. It was interesting to see how the Argentineans ran the day, the styles of the exhibits, the extra attractions and the active displays. We all realised that we could easily have stayed another day to make full use of the opportunity presented to us on many fronts.  . .

Day 9 Thursday March 8, 2012 – Cruz Alta  . .

We would have loved to have spent more time in Rosario as it looked to be a wonderful place.  The Parana River, their largest river, also flows through it and unfortunately due to foggy conditions we were unable to get a good look at it. We were escorted around the planter manufacturing facility of Bertini in Rosario by the owner of the business and his engineer and interpreter Louis. Mr Bertini a very proud Italian –Argentinean, who still runs the family business at the age of 76. Started his business 35 years ago with a small planter similar to standard small combine with double disc undercarriage suitable for zero till planting. This model is still in production. Mr Bertini is a very motivated individual who obviously has very strong relationship with his employees. Unlike some of the other manufacturers that we have met, Bertini is a full in-house production even building their own hydraulic rams to ensure the quality that Bertini is renowned for. Bertini also has a patented bearing assembly, designed and manufactured in-house that could revolutionise the bearing assemblies used on double disc openers.  . .

Day 7 – Tuesday March 6, 2012: Marcos Juarez – Las Rosas - Las Parejas - Rosario  . .

Very nice motel “Portal de Este” catering for professional travellers.  . .

Another long hot day in the field getting back to the motel after dinner at midnight. We spent today looking at 2 farms with 2 INTA extension agronomists Alejandro and Frederico as well as Carlos Braga from Cideter. . .

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We had a very interesting day. We spent the first 2.5 hours presenting a powerpoint on Australian no-till systems to staff at INTA Manfredi. INTA is the national agricultural research and extension body for Argentina; there are no state bodies. It was evident from the enthusiasm shown amongst staff and their willingness to link with each other across Argentina that this model was working very well. INTA currently has 8000 staff (and increasing) nationally, with 52 extension centres, of which Manfredi was one with 250 staff on a 1200ha property which had research, extension and commercial production (including a dairy). . .