IFAJ 2008 - Austria and Slovenia

Keep reading to find out more about my first IFAJ experience! Thanks to an award from IFAJ and Alltech, I was able to attend the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists' annual meeting in Austria and Slovenia from September 10 to 14, 2008.

September 10

Owen Roberts (University of Guelph, Canadian Farm Writers' Federation, IFAJ) registers for the congress. If not for him, I might have never made it to the congress. We arrived on the same flight and he flagged down a cab to take us, and Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman from the United States, to the hotel.

Owen Roberts and Christina Lombard (Alltech) present me with the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism Award. For more info, visit Alltech's website.

Once the annual delegates' meeting ended, we toured the city of Graz. Our Austrian guide, Gudrun Haas, has a passion for the region and its people. She was very enthusiastic about the city and that energy was contagious. I couldn't get enough of the sights, sounds and smells of Graz - mural-covered buildings, renaissance architecture, traditional Austrian folk music, roasted chesnuts.

September 11

How 'bout them apples?

Employees at Steirerfrucht select and package Austrian-grown apples for storage and shipping. On average, the facility processes about 150,000 to 170,000 tonnes per year. In addition to apples, Steirerfrucht also packages pears, plums, peaches and berries. Austrians' prefer apples above all other fruits.

Many apples come from Styria's Apple Road. Styria is the province of Austria known for its agricultural operations. The countryside is covered (literally) with black-netted apple orchards. While you may think the black netting is meant to deter birds, it is actually to protect the fruit from hail damage. Karl and Martin Leitner are the father-son team who run "Niglbauer", an apple orchard and processing facility. We tasted the fruits of their labour - apple juice, apple wine and apple schnapps.



The Canadians (minus three) show a little American pride to promote the IFAJ Congress 2009 in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

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!

September 13

This morning we rose early in order to arrive at the Lippizanar Stud Farm on time for a dressage performance by the magnificent white stallions, attended by the Princess of Jordan. Prior to the performance, we toured the stables and a small museum of antique wagons.

Lippizanis are born brown, black or red. They lose their pigment over time and transform into white horses.

Our next stop was a vineyard and a tourist winery in the countryside near Portoroz. The vineyard's claim-to-fame is its Teran wine, which can only be produced in the local area due to the unique environmental conditions. After the tour, we headed to port where we sailed out to the rainy sea.

Cruising the Slovenian coastline in style.

See you next year in Texas!