Nostalgia has been flowing over me the last couple of days, prompted by the opening of the window for 2014 Nuffield Scholarship applications*.

Back in 2010 I was selected as one of five Nuffield Scholars for the year. Oddly for a country like Ireland, I was one of two tillage scholars out of the five, the other being this year’s tillage and overall farmer of the year Kevin Nolan.

As a tillage farmer in a stock mad country, it was an incredible opportunity to travel the world looking at some of the most progressive farming businesses around the globe.

At the time I received €12,500 of a travel bursary on the basis that I would travel for a minimum of six weeks, meeting best in class businesses and on completing the scholarship, produce a report and present it.

In the end I did 10 weeks consecutively over the Christmas of 2010/11, travelling through 12 US states in the Corn Belt, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Over the course of the trip, I met some incredible people and developed friendships and networks that are as strong today as then. Many of these attended my wedding last year.

One of the standout moments was on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) which is the world’s most important grain trading bourse. It was surreal to see the pit trading in full blood, nothing in a movie could replicate how crazy those guys are.

A collection of highlights were unsurprisingly formed over a beer, either standing on the gangway over a 2,000 sow hog barn in Iowa or sitting on the tailgate of a pickup in NSW Australia watching a pivot irrigator over cotton, that’s just to name a few.

The network, both professional and personal from Nuffield is probably the standout feature, it’s all about people. Originally I set out to look at technologies and new advances in machinery and cropping but the more I travelled I realised it’s the people behind the progression and advances that are the real key.

The sad part that ends the nostalgic moments for me is the realisation that my time has come and gone as a new scholar and while I will always be a Nuffield, the travel and people are what I miss the most.

*Applications are now open for the 2015 Irish Nuffield Farming Scholarship. Application forms are available online at www.nuffield.ie. For more info contact John at exec@nuffield.ie. Carefully completed applications must be returned by email before the closing date of 31st August 2014.