Travel forms part of the university of life. By the time you read this the Irish Tillage and Land Use Society (ITLUS) will have commenced its tour to Australia.

We leave behind an autumn of intense wetness and enter a part of the world where drought has been an issue for the past three years.

The big difference is that they don’t just experience dryness, as everything gets so dry in the intense heat that it literally burns up and we all see the reports of fires, predominantly close to the south east coast.

One of our hosts in Western Australia told me that fires in that part of the country seldom get reported because there are so few inhabitants in the countryside

However, I learned last week that fires are now widespread throughout much of the country. What’s happening there becomes important when one plans to drive the roads that are closed or where there is no access to a region for an organised visit.

One of our hosts in Western Australia told me that fires in that part of the country seldom get reported because there are so few inhabitants in the countryside.

Anyway, we will duck and dive as we go and hopefully we can travel safely and according to plan.

US internship

Educational tours can teach a lot but there can be no doubting the value of being fixed in a point for a few months, rather than just a fleeting one-day visit. In this regard the opportunity provided to those involved in the ITLUS/UAS/Rosenbohm farm internship is a highly educational experience which has the potential to change one’s perspective on life.

Three young men have already taken part in this internship which provides a great opportunity for a young person, male or female, with ambition.

The main objective of this programme from an ITLUS perspective is to broaden our vision and experience of global agriculture.

It requires a different sort of thinker to see the opportunities when adversity is all around you

Previous participants will be very aware that in the US, and especially on the Rosenbohm Farm, the glass is always half full.

It requires a different sort of thinker to see the opportunities when adversity is all around you.

If the glass being half full is one major lesson from this experience, planning for the future and for additional expansion is the other. Every purchase, every investment and every opportunity is viewed from a current and future perspective. Rosenbohm Farms involves three generations who provide a terrific mix of experience and enthusiasm.

Efficiency of operation

All operations are designed for capacity and efficiency. All field operations seem to have surplus capacity for getting work done.

But there is little benefit in having big drilling or combining capacity if these machines cannot be serviced rapidly and efficiently.

Trucks form part of the farm business and these provide significant transport capacity from field to store.

But there is little benefit in this if it takes a long time to get trucks unloaded during harvest or loaded at other times.

The handling facilities were built with a much bigger capacity in mind

Hauling grain in and out is a significant part of the farm business. When ITLUS visited the farm a few years ago we saw a new bin storage facility with a bin dryer and three big storage bins. This was impressive but perhaps more impressive were the plans to quadruple the storage capacity in time. The handling facilities were built with a much bigger capacity in mind.

To put this in perspective, this facility is designed so that a truck would never be more than three minutes on the weighbridge for either loading or unloading.

A golden opportunity

The internship provides an opportunity for someone to experience agriculture abroad and to see the business of farming in a different light.

Applications forms are available on the website and the closing date for submission is 24 January.