Bayer Crop Science, Monheim am Rhein.

Bayer Worldwide

133,200 Employees

€ 40.2 Billion 

€ 3.2 Billion on research

Bayer Agrociences

27,400 Employees Worldwide

€8.819 Billion Turnover

€ 900 Million on research and Development

Currently in 120 Countries around the World

Supply Crop Protection Products for the following Crops

Vegetables Rice Canola Cotton  Cereals Corn Soyabeans and supply Vegetable seeds

Bayer Cropscience, Monheim am Rhein

1800 Employees

700 work in Head Office

200 Hectare Site

To produce an Agricultural Chemical €250 Million Research & Development and takes 10 - 12 years to reach registration 

Bayer in development with Agrotop developing an sealed delivery system that allows Bayer 10L drum to connected to boomspray tank for dispensing and can be tripled rinsed.  Launched in Brisbane at Horticulture Expo in November

Bayer Cropscience, Monheim am Rhein

Bayer Cropscience Global Headquarters, Monheim am Rhein

Jean Piere Belgium - 5 Metre Disc Air Seeder 5cm spacing

Jean Piere Belgium - Potato Harvesting Equipment

Jean Peire Belgium - Grain Storage

Jean Piere Belgium - Loading potatoes

Jean Piere Belgium - Coolroom storage for 2000 T of potatoes

Jean Piere Belgium

Dept of Agriculture in 2015 Grower will have submit a paperwork to explain why they wish to apply an herbicide, insecticide or fungicide

Jean Piere - Belgium

Apply Potash and Phosphorus broadcast before planting Potatoes

Jean Piere - Belgium

Diesel Storage and Liquid Fertiliser storage

Jean Piere Van Pvybroeck, Walhain, Belgium

Farming 630 Hectares

Ave Rainfall 700 - 800 mm

Crops

Potatoes.        270 Ha.   €150 per Tonne.  Yield 50 - 60 T per Ha

Contracted to McCain Foods 

Delivers potatoes to UK France & Belgium

Winter Wheat. 210 Ha

Winter Barley.  60 Ha

Sugarbeet.       60 Ha

Crop Rotation.   Sugarbeet/winter wheat/winter barley/potatoes

Soil pH 7.0 - 7.5

Dow AgroScience Global Product Manager Michel Vivier

Christophe's Organic Tomato Crop

Christopher's Green House Organic Vegetable Production for farmers market

Christophe's potatoes - in background neighboring farm 60,000 meat chickens

Christopher's for Lunch

Christophe Dopuy - Reims France

Crops

Winter wheat 40 Ha.    Yield. 9 - 10 t/Ha

OSR.             50 Ha.     Yield 3.5-5 t/Ha

Winter Barley 60 Ha.      Yield 9-10t/ha

Spring Barley 20 Ha.      Yield 8t/Ha

Potatoes.       20 Ha.      

Lucerne.        30 Ha.       15 T/Ha

Collect straw and chaff from behind Combine Harvester and is used as by product for organic matter

www.thierart.com

Vincent & Julien - solar production Sell at 60 cents to grid

Vincent & Julien - 36 M boomspray. Water rate 100 Litres per hectare

Vincent & Julien - tillage Vaderstad Topdown 5 metre

Vincent & Julien - primary tillage

Vincent & Julien - 5 Metre wide Airseeder on 5cm spacing

Vincent & Julien - canola harvested from previous day

Vincent & Juilen - Started to harvest canola

Vincent & Julien - grain Storage on Farm 10,000 Tonne. Aerated

Vincent & Julien - Winter Wheat Crop est. yield 10t per Hectare

Vincent & Juilen - wheat field with native poppies in fore ground

Vincent & Julien - Cool room storage for potatoes

Vincent & Julien Bournaison, Livry-Louvercy, France

I 3rd Generation Farmers

Rainfall. 600mm

Farm Size 500 hectares

Crops: Potatoes 40 Ha  (yield 60t/ha) Winter wheat 200 ha. (Yield 10t/ha) Canola 70 ha )(yield 4.5t/ha) sugarbeet 100 ha (100t/ha)

Grain prices (€) wheat 130, canola 245, barley 120, sugarbeet 60

Carrots 60 Ha. Irrigated.  No limitation on ML pumped. bore 10 M in depth

Soil type : Chalk loam pH 7

Wheat seeding rate @160kg per hectare 

Canola seeding rate 4 - 5 kg per hectare.  Conventional canola grown Dekalb Exquisite 

Fertiliser application rates

200 kg /ha of N for wheat and canola

80 kg/ha of P20 of phosphorus 

150 kg/ha of K every third year

Cereal leaf diseases. Septoria. Mild winter and resistance poor control this season

Dow Agroscience Host in Reims, France

* Rainfall.    800mm per year

Main crops in region. Canola wheat barley corn sugarbeet potatoes

Ave. yields.

 winter wheat 8.3 t/ha

 barley.            7.6 t/ha

Canola            3.9t/ha

Animal production.  Mainly beef cattle

Average size farms. 100 Ha to 200 Ha

Land value. €22,000 - €26,000 per hectare

Arable land lease ave €230 per hectare

Champagne production vineyards Over €200,000 per hectare with champagne production winery

Major weeds- Black grass , ryegrass, Brome grass, cleavers, mayweed, poppy

Herbicide resistance to black grass, poppy and mayweed.  ALS chemistry 

Cost of herbicide programs €60 per hectare

In 1950 EU agricultural subsidy introduced to control production.

Policy Change for Eurpoean Union on Agriculture Subsidy

2012   €60,915 per annum to farm business

2015   €51,915 per annum to farm business

2019. €42,115 per annum to farm buisiness

Sugarbeet grown on a quota system for farmers.

World War II Bullet holes from Battles on walls of the Australian War Memorial

Opening of Australian War Memorial, King George VI

Inscription at the Australian War Memorial

View from Australian War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France & Battle of the Some

The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme, German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the River Somme in France. The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of humanity'sbloodiest battles. A Franco-British commitment to an offensive on the Somme had been made during Allied discussions atChantilly, Oise in December 1915. The Allies agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916, by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. The main part of the offensive was to be made by the French Army, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of theBritish Expeditionary Force ("BEF").

When the German Army began the Battle of Verdun on the Meuse on 21 February 1916, many French divisions intended for the Somme were diverted and the supporting attack by the British became the principal effort. The first day on the Sommewas a serious defeat for the German Second Army, which was forced out of its first line of defence by the French Sixth Army, from Foucaucourt-en-Santerre south of the Somme to Maricourt on the north bank and by the British Fourth Army from Maricourt to the vicinity of the Albert–Bapaume road. 1 July 1916 was also the worst day in the history of the British Army, which had c. 60,000 casualties, mainly on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt, where the attack failed disastrously and few British troops reached the German front line. The British Army on the Somme was a mixture of the remains of the pre-war regular army, the Territorial Force and the Kitchener Army, which was composed of Pals battalions, recruited from the same places and occupations, whose losses had a profound social impact in Britain.

The battle is notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank. At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated 6 miles (9.7 km) into German-occupied territory, taking more ground than any offensive since theBattle of the Marne in 1914. The Anglo-French armies failed to capture Péronne and were still 3 miles (4.8 km) fromBapaume, where the German armies maintained their positions over the winter. British attacks in the Ancre valley resumed in January 1917 and forced the Germans into local withdrawals to reserve lines in February, before the scheduled retirement to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) began in March.

General Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of the BEF, and General Henry Rawlinson, commander of the Fourth Army, have been criticised ever since, for the human cost of the battle and for failing to achieve their territorial objectives. On 1 August 1916 Winston Churchill criticised the British Army's conduct of the offensive to the British Cabinet, claiming that though the battle had forced the Germans to end their offensive at Verdun, attrition was damaging the British armies more than the German armies. Though Churchill was unable to suggest an alternative, a critical view of the British on the Somme has been influential in English-language writing ever since.

AVS Europe Study Group at the Australian War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Australian War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France

In the First World War, on 24 April 1918, Villers-Bretonneux was the site of the world's first battle between two tank forces: three British Mark IVs against three German A7Vs. The Germans took the town, but that night and the next day it was recaptured by 4th and 5th Division of the First Australian Imperial Force at a cost of over 1200 Australian lives. The town's mayor spoke of the Australian troops on 14 July 1919 when unveiling a memorial in their honour.

The Australian War Memorial in France is located just outside Villers-Bretonneux and in front of it lie the graves of over 770 Australian soldiers, as well as those of other British Empire soldiers involved in the campaign. The school in Villers-Bretonneux was rebuilt using donations from school children of Victoria, Australia (many of whom had relatives perish in the town's liberation), and above every blackboard is the inscription "N'oublions jamais l'Australie" (Let us never forget Australia).^[1][2] The annual ANZAC Day ceremony is held at this village on ANZAC Day, 25 April, each year. Traditionally, Australian commemorations have focused on Gallipoli. However, the 2008 ANZAC Day commemoration focused on the Western Front, and a special dawn service marking the 90th anniversary of the battle of 24/25 April 1918 was held on ANZAC Day itself at Villers-Bretonneux.^[3]

Meanwhile back on the battle field.....51st Highland Division Beamount Hamel Memorial

Japanese Wedding couple in Paris with Aussies

Bastille Day

Bastille Day Paris. Part Two

Warning sign surrounding the memorial

Cemetery of soldiers lost in the battle of Somme

Walking in the trenches at the Site of the. Battle of the Somme