Mile after mile of corn residue waiting to be planted and each field with centre pivot irrigation. These pivots are fed from the Ogallala aquifer which is an underground water source located under eight states in the Midwest. Corn drives agriculture out here and forms the cornerstone of all livestock and poultry production.

One small word describes American agriculture perfectly - “big”. Visits included a 30,000 head feedlot, a pig breeding company that owned 55,000 sows, a 6,000 cow dairy, and Cargill meatworks in Schuyler which processes 5,100 animals a day. One in four steaks produced in the USA come from Nebraska. The pig visit was extremely interesting as they kept the pure breeding units small and ensured there were always two units with what they called sister genetics. This meant that in case of disease out break all the same gene pool would not be lost.

We visited the headquarters of DTN Progressive Farmer. This is an agricultural news organisation that focuses largely on markets and the weather industry. Due to the unpredictability of weather on the Great Plains, it's meteorological service forms the backbone of the company. They offer weather stations for sale and have become so precise they can predict rain to within one hour. It's editor Greg Horstmeier joined us at a BBQ at our host, Bart Ruth's farm and said of the meal that he remembers sitting down with a beer and food at 7:15pm and the next thing his wife said they had better head for home as it was almost 10. That pretty much sums up the global focus program for me, it's like a conversation started on the 28th of February and all of a sudden it was the 14th of April and it came to an abrupt end.

Travelling with a group of Aussie and Kiwi farmers was an eye opening experience. At times when it came around to farm talk I felt a little embarrassed. They focused so much on their farms assets and how to get the most from challenging environments, whereas we largely look to get the most from our CAP payments. First and foremost to them, farming was a business, with no supports - it is a case of adapt or fail.

When it came to farming they had good attitude, spoke about altitude, longitude, latitude, soil, water, and daylight length. The also spoke about animal physiology, behaviour, efficiency, etc. Maybe we've taken our eye off the ball in Ireland but it was so refreshing to talk actual physical farming. No mention of SFP or European schemes it made for a pleasant change.