Over 200 people from almost 20 different countries met last week at the annual European IFYE conference at Greenmount College in Antrim, Northern Ireland. International Farm Youth Exchange (IFYE) organizes rural exchanges all over the world. An exchangee lives and works with different host families and gets to know a new country, other traditions and agriculture. It is an experience of a lifetime. Many of the alumni meet every year at the conference to keep in touch, to get to know new people from all over the world, to share their experiences and to learn more about the country where the conference is held.

Before the conference I knew just a few things about Northern Ireland; like that it is green and rainy and that the people have a great sense of humour. With the jam-packed programme this changed quickly.

Differences

We learnt more about Irish Agriculture and got an insight into a dairy farm, a fishery, egg production and a goat farm. The scales were really impressive for a Swiss person. Production for the world market on the dairy farm showed how increased economic pressure changes the way of farming. Compared with Switzerland, the farms are more specialised and more industrial but also have fewer regulations. It was impressive to see how the farmer calculates what strategy might be the best for his farm and how many numbers about his production he was aware of. At the egg farm we visited, they had 110,000 hens. According to the regulations in Switzerland, you can have a maximum of 18,000. In Switzerland, the farmer is paid for the number of eggs produced, while at the farm we visited the farmer was a contract rearer and was paid for the amount of hens he keeps per day.

Leisure

We got to see Irish Dance performances, listened to live folk music, tried GAA, surfing at the sea and hiking at the Giants Causeway. The landscape at the coastline was amazing. During a city tour in Derry we learned about the Troubles and we visited the Titanic Museum in Belfast.

As always with IFYE, it’s not the facts that let you learn more about the country and the culture, but the people you meet. The fact that in Northern Ireland almost everybody knows everybody (or at least someone in common gave) the conference a very familiar touch.

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