October 15 Bonn

Oct. 15

This morning we met with our host Stefan, his office is connected to the hotel.  He gave us a presentation on about an International Education Exchange, the program that his office coordinates.  They help to place about 130 German students in other countries each year (50 in the US), and place 100 international students in Germany.  The students are post high school and are place with a farm where they can work and learn first hand about a particular agricultural industry.  He asked Matthias Schulte-Althoff to tell about his exchange in North Dakota.  He worked on a wheat and cattle farm, he said that the size and scale of the farm was unlike anything he had seen.  It seemed to be a great experience for him.  His family has hosted several exchange students from Eastern Europe and plans to host more in the future.  The program seems to be a great experience and Stefan is always looking for students who would like to participate.

We also listened to a presentation from Matthias Mehner who is in charge of the "Central National Institute for Advanced Vocational Training".  They have developed a leadership development program that focuses on social training for farmers and Ag leaders.  The Program is called B/U/S and costs 100-300 euros per session.  The sessions are each two days long and include:

1. My own capabilities
2. My enterprise and market
3. Communication
4. My way forward (mission statement)
5. Project and time management
6. Negotiations
7. Corporate development (goals for the business)
8. Capital expenditures (finance)
9. Work-life-balance (values)
10. My individual development concept

We drove in Stefan's tiny car to the city center where we walked around and saw the community building where Ronald Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev.  We then had lunch at a restaurant close by.

We then rushed to our next meeting at the office of the Rheinischer Landwirtschatsverband (Rhineland farm Bureau).  We visited with Dr. Reinhard Pauw the managing director about the purpose of the RLV, they are much like our Farm Bureau.  We also visited with Aline Foschepoth, an agricultural engineer.  Her group works with farmers to mitigate conservation requirement.  In Germany when land is developed there must be half as much land as was developed placed in conservation to preserve wildlife habitat.  Traditionally land was place in forest and was lost to agricultural production forever.  This group is developing ways to preserve wildlife habitat and maintain agricultural viability of the land at the same time.  Some of the examples we saw included planting grain in wider rows to allow for birds to nest in between the rows, also leaving small unplanted patches throughout the field (20X10) also to allow for nesting.  It appears to be an interesting approach to conservation and preservation of wildlife habitat in this high population density country.


Following our meetings we were driven back to our hotel and given some free time.  We are getting towards the end of our trip and must be getting tired because we sat in the hotel lobby and talked for a while before going to bed.  We talked about going out to eat or see the city, but nothing appealed to us.