Dubai stopover

When you enter the arrivals lounge in Dubai airport you are greeted with marble floors and waterfalls running down and lining the building wall. You are immediately left in no doubt that money, luxury, and opulence are the key elements that form the culture of this Emirate.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates and has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is the current ruler of Dubai, and for good measure also the Prime Minister and Vice President. Nothing like total control!
The twenty minute drive to our hotel in the dark was like a futuristic journey with brightly lit skyscrapers towering either side of the seven lane motorway. We drove past the world’s second tallest, and most expensive hotel, the Burj Al Arab which is shaped like a yachts sail with a heli pad on top for that VIP guest. Unfortunately we did not stop as my budget did not quite extend that far much to Sheila’s disappointment.

What looked incredible at night, turned out in daylight to be the biggest building site I had ever seen with half built buildings, swarming with blue overalled labourers working in 34 to 45 degree heat. (mostly from the Indian sub continent – human rights are not high up on the agenda with regards to this group of people) Tourism, real estate and financial services now increasingly provides the emirate’s revenue, but the economy was originally built on the profits of the oil industry.

Inevitably the oil is running out, and due to the global downturn in the financial economy, Dubai’s foreign dept has increased to nearly 100 bullion US dollars. Just to put it in perspective, each of the Emirate’s 250,000 nationals is responsible for 400,000 US dollars in foreign dept! (Even though the oil is running out, you can still fill the fuel tank of a Land Rover Discovery for less than £20) There is a saying in Wales about ‘having everything in the shop window’; the previous financial fact on foreign dept does not equate to the unrelenting show of wealth in the form of exotic cars, malls full of designer shops and even an internal ski slope. We saw no hint of poverty, rubbish, binge drinking (you need a licence to buy alcohol or it is moderately served in the hotel bars) homelessness or the other distressing sights that are common on our streets in the UK. (there must be a happy medium) It was just too perfect! It reminded me of a trip to Disneyland, a theme based on make believe…

We left Dubai having enjoyed the weather, the lovely beach by the hotel, the incredible courtesy expressed by everyone, but with a feeling that Dubai has lost its soul to consumerism and that a dark side exists, hidden carefully away from the Western visitor.

I did try to find some Welsh lamb in the mall I visited which had a large Carfour outlet. Unfortunately I only came across New Zealand and Australian lamb, and South American beef! It was comforting to be assured however by an expat, that there was an upmarket chain of stores stocking Welsh lamb somewhere in Dubai……..

We have left Dubai after a thirty six hour stopover, and are now flying onto Auckland via Sydney. It is around now I am told that our body clocks will start to get confused as we enter different time zones. Neither Sheila nor I have managed to get any sleep on the flight so far. (8 hours in with 9 to go!) We shall probably pay for it later as we are landing in New Zealand in the morning, and will have a full day ahead of us, including a meeting with the MAF Head of Biosecurity.

Leaving home!

Chauffeur driven to Port Talbot Railway Station by a retired gentleman farmer from Cwrt-y-Cadno was the ideal way to start my Nuffield . In a few days we will have travelled to the other side of the world, and over a period of six weeks driven through most of New Zealand, and then flown onto Australia, where farming one sheep per ten acres is a challenge. Surreal, but then writing this blog 11 kilometres off the ground is also fairly weird. There is a screen in front of me showing our flight progress, and I have just realised that we are flying over Iraq, and names such as Mosul, Fallujah and Baghdad are appearing. How many of my fellow countrymen are below me on the ground in great danger, while I have the freedom to fly over them. A sobering thought.

Leaving Llandre for six weeks……leaving the family for six weeks!

Everything seems to be in place:
· two daughters away in college,
· one daughter at home looking after Dadcu and Mamgu (or the other way round…it will work out!)
· the rams out with the sheep, 640 ewes – do not believe everything you read in Gwlad, although it does cause a certain amount of local discussion!
· Irwel looking after the farm with my father and a great deal of Tir Gofal work to be done before the end of November.
· 188 ewe lambs sent on tack to Pembrokeshire
· 230 lambs left to fatten with 550 already sold to Dunbia at an average of 17.9Kg deadweight
· Room for seventy cattle to be over wintered on GOOD SILAGE, with only twenty booked in as we leave. Contact huw.llandre@farmline.com if you have fifty cattle looking for B & B!

Next stop, Dubai , where we shall stay for couple of nights and meet up with a family friend, tidy up my presentations for New Zealand and try to keep Sheila away from the shops.

Sweden and Welfare Quality

The Welfare Quality (WQ) conference did not disappoint, and confirmed the fact that animal welfare is very high up the European political agenda. Sweden currently holds the Presidency of the EU and prides itself on a positive track record within the field of animal welfare. The opening statements were made by the Swedish Minister for Agriculture and the EU Commissioner for DG Health and Consumers. The seniority of these speakers was not surprising when you contemplate that this was the closing meeting of a 7 year project that has cost 20 million Euros.

The WQ project has worked with three species; cattle, pigs and poultry. Sheep were not included due to the perceived lack of welfare problems and also the low numbers of sheep being farmed within the EU (excluding the UK). The project brought together animal and social scientists, in a quest to find a solution that delivered on consumer demands re animal welfare but that was also achievable, measurable and had positive cost benefits on farm. Much work had been done on animal based measures which could be scored, but proposals on practical methods of implementation within realistic time frames on farm was lacking. Maybe it is a case of the scientists delivering on the research and leaving it to chance whether the anything else happens! Justifiable comments were made on the danger of just another scheme, another inspection and more regulation.

What did I take away from my two days in Sweden?

• An understanding of the WQ project (Strength and weaknesses)
  
• A chance to meet with stakeholders from all over the world - on the first day I sat next to a legislator from Estonia and a meat marketing manager from Namibia (one sheep/15 acres!)
  
• An insight into the roles and significant influence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on all aspects of animal production including welfare.

On my return to the farm the key task was to put some rams out with our Beulah ewes to ensure some lambs next Spring! We now have two weeks to prepare the farm our six week absence.

Welfare Quality Conference

I am two weeks away from my six week study tour to New Zealand and Australia, and travelling to what can only be a an excellent introduction to a global perspective on animal welfare. The final stakeholder conference of the EU funded Welfare Quality project (http://www.welfarequality.net/) is being held in Uppsala, Sweden, tomorrow and on Friday and I am writing this as I fly the Amsterdam to Stockholm leg of my journey from West Wales. Seems far removed from checking the 300 lambs that are left to finish back at Llandre early this morning!

The conference is titled: "Delivering Animal Welfare and Quality, Transparency in the Food Production Chain" Speakers have been drawn from all the world including Uruguay, a country which I was fortunate to visit earlier in the year.

Some key questions which I will consider within my Nuffield studies are dealt with at this conference:
How do we design welfare measures?
Creating a welfare scoring system and the assessment and certification of the ‘costs and benefits’
The Welfare Quality Project has involved a significant investment in terms of money, time and expertise and it will be interesting to view the final outcome.

The main concern I have over of the next two days is how I will be able to absorb and interpret the information that will be forthcoming from around 19 guest speakers!
Latest as I upload this post in my hotel room - Human welfare is also important and not helped by being told on landing in Stockholm that my luggage is still in Amsterdam!!