September 12

In the morning we visited KWB, a biomass boiler manufacturing company. I love trees so this was right up my alley. The entire office smelled like wood! It would've been nice to have toured a logging site though. David Pock, a marketing representative of KWB, says the company aims to take responsibility for the future, both in product development and manufacturing practices. The boiler systems are so simple, it's a wonder such units are not more popular in Canada, considering our abundant wood supply. Pock says that many farmers in the area purchase large systems and sell excess energy to their neighbours.

Mmm...I love the smell of pellets!

Some of the IFAJ journalists went a little loopy when we visited Celeia Dairy only to discover that it was a milk processing facility with no cows and plastic biosecurity suits. Mlekarna Dairy is the second largest dairy in Slovenia, working with 20 to 30 farmer cooperatives for milk supply and processing about 25,000 litres of milk per hour. Milk is collected every other day from nearby farms. Most farmers only have 10 to 20 cows.

Beautiful Ljubljana. The city tour was a highlight - very old European feel. I could taste history in the air. After the tour, we loaded the buses and headed for Portoroz. Amidst thunder and lightning and torrential downpour, Katie Lomas, a farm journalist from the UK, and I headed out to join the others for dinner. As we emerged from the hotel, we were ushered under a bright orange umbrella held by David Markey, former IFAJ President. Talk about a royal escort!