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Autumn (Fall) in America
This year has seen more international travel – for work and pleasure! In the last blog, I reported on my last trip to Chile providing extension training - a great experience. I have also had further opportunity to visit Hamilton in New Zealand with my DairyNZ monitoring and evaluation work – always a pleasure!
Read the full post | Tags: Monitoring, 2011, Jeff Coutts, Canada
Back to Chile
I really didn’t expect to get back to Chile – or at least not so soon! As you will see from an earlier blog, I travelled there to work with the dairy industry on the subject of “extension” in 2010. I had thought it was a nice ‘one-off’ opportunity and enjoyed it on that basis. Then I found myself back – this time running a more formal extension training course that I developed “ Camino a la adopcion – Extension de formacion” - or “Pathway to Adoption – Extension training”. Of course, I didn’t do the translation! – that was organised by the Consorcio Lechero who brought me over. This organisation plays a coordinating role across the value chain within the dairy industry – and saw a need for improved extension approaches if Chile was to make the gains they wanted in the dairy industry.
Read the full post | Tags: Jeff Coutts, Chile, Dairy, Extension, Consorcio Lechero
Blog Update - The Start of 2011
Well the Queensland and Victorian Floods have dominated the last month – and now a cyclone is heading towards my original home town – Ayr! Quite a start to the year! I feel for those affected directly and indirectly. And those landholders who have battled drought and have now lost crops, pastures, stock and infrastructure to floods.
Read the full post | Tags: Jeff Coutts, Blog, 2011, Floods, Fiji
Wrapping up 2010
Well just short trips since Chile. A couple of days in Port Lincoln where I have been doing some work with the Eyre Peninsula NRM Board – looking at planning and evaluation for the major natural resource management programs.
Read the full post | Tags: Blog, December, Christmas
Dairying in Chile
For some reason, the dairy industry has entered my radar over the last year. I have had an enjoyable association with Dairy NZ looking at measuring impact which included a couple of visits to Hamilton New Zealand and out of left field came an invitation to visit Chile to talk about improving technology adoption in the dairy industry.
Read the full post | Tags: Dairy industry, Chile, Extension, Evaluation
Ahh, the Yorkshire dales
Having just come back from a good six weeks holiday in Europe, I thought it time to update my blog with another overseas instalment. Having had this business for almost a decade, I thought we were entitled to long service leave like anyone else - hence a full six weeks to allow the brain to wind down fully. Fortunately for me, Amy was there to hold the fort and so I could (almost) ignore the email traffic while travelling (its remarkable how much wireless access is available out there!).
Read the full post | Tags: Holiday, Europe, Evaluation
Convergence - a moment with my father
In the extension arena, we often talk about managing change. We talk about capacity and resilience and making changes to improve our own lives and our communities. It’s not just about taking the latest technology and applying it – but to have thoughtfully learned from our experiences and training and weighing up what to apply across our social, economic, environmental landscape.
Read the full post | Tags: Convergance, Keith Coutts
Fiji
Having finally set foot on Fiji – I thought I would revert back to my international theme for this update! Even though I had lived and worked in Papua New Guinea (see my earlier blog) and had projects in Asia, I longed for the opportunity to do something in the Pacific Islands. Many years ago, I had to choose between a poultry-based job in Fiji – and one in PNG. I chose PNG but often wondered where life would have taken me and my family had I chosen differently.
Read the full post | Tags: Blog, Fiji, ACIAR
Survey Workshops
One of the factors that has prompted us to launch our specialised rural survey service has been the survey workshops that I developed with Kerry Bell – a whiz with numbers and statistics! Kerry and I had been co-running the University of Queensland’s ‘Evaluation of Projects and Programs’ Masters course for a number of years.
Read the full post | Tags: Jeff Coutts, Survey Workshops, Rural Survey Services
Tassie
It's not exactly 'overseas', but Tasmania is separated from mainland Australia by Bass Straight! So maybe it 'almost' fits the travel theme of previous blogs.
Read the full post | Tags: Tasmania, Cradle Coast, Stronger Learning Pathways, 8x5 wool profitability project