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Kevin Davies's Diary 

Back in November last year, myself and Gareth Worthington from Cilcain YFC, North Wales, were selected to travel to the state of Illinois, USA, through the international exchange program that the young farmers run which mean we send two members over to the USA and they send two back to Wales. So on the 22nd of September 08, we flew from Heathrow to Chicago. As soon as we got there, the first thing we noticed was the heat and also that everything was FLAT, not a hill or a mountain in sight! We were out there for 3 weeks and stayed with 4 different families. The timing was excellent for us because they were just starting their harvest season and, on my second day there, I spent some of the day on the combine, harvesting corn and the rest on the auger cart, loading the lorries. This was a new experience for me, a simple beef and sheep farmer from Wales.

    On the third day we got the opportunity to travel to a calf replacement rearing unit. They took in calves in from local dairy farms and kept them till they came to bulling age. All the calves were kept in portable  kennels; at the time we were there, they had 2500 calves under their management. We went with Quinn Zehur, the owner of replacement unit, to pick up some fresh calves from Stone Ride Dairy, the largest dairy farm in the area. They were milking 3500 cows 3 times a day, quite an operation and an eye opener, let me tell you! They had seven employees working for each milking on an every other milking system.

 Towards the end of the week, we travelled with the local High school dairy judging team to a practice session and  it was  interesting to watch. As someone who has done quite a bit of stock judging over the years, their judging style was different to what I was used to.

  I moved to my second family on the weekend, to a beef farm, where they managed around 115 head. The cattle were almost all Angus, limousin or a cross between the two. One of the biggest difference between them and this country  was that they were not overloaded by paper work like we have; things were much simpler out there.

We travelled to the world dairy expedition in Madison, and, despite being a beef and sheep man, I had a wonderful time there. It was an amazing spectacle of dairy cattle of all breeds from all over the world. I don't think I have seen so many dairy cows in one place in my life, as well as so many people from every corner of the world, similar to the Royal Welsh but just all dairy.     

             We also visited a hogg farm. The set up there was unbelievable; they supplied over 4500 hogs a month to a slaughter house. They took in piglets in when the weighed around 7 kilos; we saw a load coming to the farm, an artic load at a time; there was a lot of piglets coming in at the same time, I can assure you!

             On our last week, we were taken to a turkey farm where they had over 2200 turkeys which they used for egg laying rather than for meat. They artificially inseminated the hens with semen they took from their own cockerels and this process happened 3 times a week. Each hen would lay two eggs every three days and the egg itself was about three times the size of a chicken egg. Turkeys were very popular in the area where we stayed but this was the only place where they bred them for eggs rather than for meat.

             During our second week, we went to the John Deere plant, the largest combine manufacturing plant in the USA. It was amazing to think that they could build a combine in just 14 days! We were lucky enough to get a tour around the plant and I can't start to describe the machinery and the equipment in the plant. We were also lucky enough to get the chance to sit in the world's biggest combine; unfortunately we didn't have the keys to take it for a test drive!

             Diversification wasn't as big out there like it is here in Wales, but we were lucky enough to visit a farm that had turned an old log cabin in the middle of the woods into a hunting club. They even reared their own birds, e.g. ducks, pheasants and woodchucks, and they would get people in from the cities and from abroad just so they could organise shoots / hunts, they even had  kennels for people to bring their own dogs.  They had thought of pretty much  everything to give the ultimate hunters package; quite a high class look to attract the high end of society, without a doubt.

During our time there, we got to see and experience so much, we had time in Chicago and went to Illinois' state capital, Springfield. We also had the opportunity to fly small two seater planes (under supervision),  shoot hand guns as well as sampling the night life and so much more. The people we met were all so friendly and welcoming; we were made to feel at home from the first day to the last.  I am so thankful to the YFC for giving me the opportunity to travel to Illinois; I have so many memories of my time there and I hope one day I will be able to go back and revisit the friends that I made out there. I would definitely encourage any member of the YFC to go for these exchange visits. I guarantee that you will have an  amazing experience and love every minute of your time there.