Going Global Update #1

Wow! What a whirlwind these past few days have been!
Day 1
After flying from Saskatoon to Toronto, I was able to meet up with another Canadian delegate, Fiona, for our flight to London Heathrow. We survived the 7 hour flight to London and arrived at 11:30 on Saturday morning (that translates to 5:30am MB time). We boarded a bus to Birmingham where we were met by a National Young Farmer's
Council member and delivered to our hosts for the night, Bert and Jen, from Robert Mitchell Farms. After tea we did a walk of their farm, a mixed arable and beef feedlot. They currently have about 650 steers on feed which they house in large open sheds. They strictly feed steers and mainly get in Continental breeds (lots of Limos and Belgian Blues). In Britain animals are graded on the EUROP scale, which includes meat yield and fat covet. Canada's scale includes marbling (fat inside the muscle) which plays a role in meat tenderness. Robert Mitchell Farms also grow wheat, maize (corn), oilseed rape (similar to canola) and potatoes. Most grain is stored in large sheds instead of bins and the potatoes are kept in cold storage to keep them from spoiling and can be kept for months! The farm also has implemented a sorting system and bagging robot to allow them to pack their potatoes for the chip (french fry) market. Waste potatoes from the farm and from nearby potato packing plants are used on the farm in the cattle ration, along with silage and chopped hay - which is a neat way to use up bad potatoes. This was a diverse and forward thinking farm that I really enjoyed touring!
Side note: there are hedges EVERYWHERE! Environmental regulations don't allow them to be removed easily and they are kept as habitat for the songbird population.