...And to our right, you will see Bosnia...

Here's the second part of my update from the past week :)  ...and yes, Bosnia is right across the River Sava from Croatia...so I got to see (but not go to) another country while I was in Slavonski Brod...

Oh, AND I got super bored while not wanting to write this in my spare time, so I gave the blog a new look...all I can tell you is I have PhD in Procrastination, in addition to my two B.S. degrees :)

Slavonski Brod
The River Sava is a tributary of the Danube River, and pretty much forms the border between Croatia and Bosnia.  Slavonski Brod is settled right on the Croatian side of the river, and if you look across, you can see Bosnia Brod.  For those of you wondering, "brod" is the same thing as "ford" in English...i.e. to ford the river...it's an area where the river is shallow enough to cross over (for communication, transport, moving goods,etc.) during a good portion of the year.  It's also another term for a boat, but we'll stick with the first definition.  Like I was saying in my last entry, it rained over here for a couple of weeks, so there's been a lot of flooding...the river was still pretty high while I was there--and murky, brown, and littered with branches and whatnot.

Fun Historical "Facts": there have been archaeological finds dating back further than 2,000 years ago (Roman period), but the oldest writing/documents found are from around 500 years ago.  Most of the homes here have an Austro-Hungarian Empire influence in their setup and architecture...pretty cool.  Slavonski Brod is also the location of the important and historical Brod Fortress...
The Brod Fortress is about 250-300 years old, and was underground until about 20 years ago (the beginning of the struggle for Croatia's independence.  The fort is surrounded by channels of water, and is multi-pointed-star-shaped.  They are currently working on reconstructing the fort (to look the same as it used to, but newer looking), to improve its image and increase tourism to the area.

High School Matthew Anthony Reljkovica Slavonski Brod  (Agriculture High School)
We met with the director of this school and learned a little bit about the programs, and then he took us on a tour of their orchards and stables.  This school started in 1959 as the only agriculture school in the area.  It now has about 950 students, and offers 3 different programs: 1-Technical School of Agriculture (agriculture & forestry), 2-Veterinary School, 3-Chemical School (chemistry, ecology, nutrition, geodesy).  There are now a lot more agriculture high schools throughout the country, serving the different areas.

The school operates about 70 hectares that they use for: 12 hectares of orchards, crop and vegetable production, and research plots (which the students are able to utilize), vineyard, teaching botanical garden, greenhouses, stables for livestock, Lipizzan horses, facilities for livestock/horse exhibitions, and many other things.  The school is actively involved in partnering with organizations, companies, and other schools in research and information exchange.  They work a lot with a Dutch company, especially in their greenhouse/landscape/propagation, etc. programs.  It was pretty neat to see a school with a huge agriculture program that really prepares its students for agriculture programs at the university level.

Farm Tours!
Ivan's Farm:
- 130 cultivated hectares to produce crops/forage/grass, which is used to feed all of his own animals, has 400 ton silage capacity
- Started a dairy about 5 years ago with the help of Dukat, but hasn't finished completely, all new buildings, cows, and machinery
- 40-45 Holstein dairy cows, with 20 replacements
- Dairy production is 22-25 liters/cow/day...7-7.5 tons/year
- Operative Program of Development of Cattle Production in Croatia is a program that helps to start up these operations here, helps with credit and loans for producers.
- Ivan borrowed 230,000 euros to start his farm, at ~4% interest, with a 2 year grace period and 8 years for repayment...45,000 euros are paid by the government, so he does not have to pay that back.
PROBLEMS:
- Price: 1 year ago, price for milk was 3.9 kn/l, today it is 2.9 kn/l
- Now he has to pay more to have his milk picked up
- Subsidies: loss of subsidies, the govt. has subsidized Simmental and Holstein cows at 800kn/cow, now they are only supporting Simmental (big problem for Ivan)

Jelas Farm
 The Jelas farm is owned by a company who has multiple farms for various types of production.  This one in particular is for beef production, and has its own cow-calf operation.  It's been in production for 5-6 years, is home to 2,000 cattle on feed and about 700 cows for breeding, and is on over 450 hectares.
- They raise all of their own cows to go into their breeding program.
- They produce about 70% of their own cattle to go into the feeding program and import the other 30% from other Eastern European countries.
- Both bulls and heifers go into the feeding program, but before heifers go in, they assess their needs for the breeding program
- They utilize 300 hectares to produce feed and 150 hectares for pasture (split into 3 pastures...holding 200 cows)
- Cows calve from February-May in stables (6 cows/pen), at 1-2 months old, calves are weaned and put on dry forage, then are moved into groups in the feeding barns up to 500 kilos.

Piec Farm/Community Cooperative
The guys from our MSU group already visited the Piec farm (which we wrote a little about earlier), but since I'm still here, we decided to do a visit for me too.  This is actually based on a protected land area that at one point was a massive wetland/swamp-type of area until the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  It stretches over 204,000 hectares of land (including a LOT of forestland, some pasture, roads, river, etc).  There are about 300 horses (Croatian Posavac...a protected breed- subsidized by the govt.), about 80 cow-calf pairs (for beef), and about 65 dairy cows, and a few sheep and pigs in the mix.

The community has been in a "cooperative" for many years, which is kind of helpful in marketing the stock, but they still have a problem with receiving payments.  Each household pays the first year to become a member, and there are 57 member-households in the community, and they have a cooperative "manager".  They do not pay people to work, but since they are members, they can utilize the vast amount of pasture for grazing their livestock and work together.  It's definitely not the same as cooperatives in America, but they are working on making it better in the years to come.

**I will work on putting up my week 4-5 pictures on photobucket today/tomorrow...just check for a link in the sidebar :)

That is all for my tours this week!  I have Friday-Sunday off to do whatever I need before heading back to Montana on Monday morning!  I hope you've all enjoyed following along with me on my trip!  I'll be in touch soon!

Erin

Slavonia...the rain FINALLY went away!

Yet again, I’ve waited over a week to update the blog…it’s a good thing I don’t give myself deadlines, because I would disappoint myself every time!  For the past five days, I’ve been in Slavonia (another region of Croatia)—in Brod County.  Zoran &; Nina’s families are from the area in and around Slavonski Brod, and we stayed with Zoran’s parents here.

On our trip to Slavonski Brod, we made a pit-stop at Vlado’s (the one who has the bed & breakfast near Ilok) other home so that Zoran could work with his daughter on her PhD thesis.  Vlado took Nina and me on a tour around the area, visiting some of his land, seeing some cities/small towns, and the malting plant there.  In the past couple of weeks, it has rained a lot in this area, and there has been excessive flooding in the villages and fields, and the River Sava has risen to a very high level from the drainage/rain.

**AS ALWAYS, CLICK ON THE COLLAGES TO GET A LARGER, BETTER VIEW!!!**

Vlado's beautiful home...they have their own complete "biker bar" downstairs!

Vlado owns around 100 hectares (250 acres) of cultivated land in both small and bigger parcels around the area (small=1-2 hectares, big=15-40 hectares).  It is split into sugar beets (15 Ha), rape seed (15 Ha), spring barley (40 Ha), and wheat (30 Ha).  The soils around this area are very heavy, so the drainage here is very poor…imagine what happens when it rains for over a week (like it just did) with poor drainage…BUT, they do have a canal system to help with drainage into the River Sava.  For every cultivated hectare of land, the farmer must pay a fee for maintenance of the canal system (although the money isn’t always used for that).

Our next stop was in Nova Gradiska at Slavonja Slod, the only malting company in Croatia.  Vlado is the overall site manager (pretty much president), so we got a decent tour—even though they had stopped production for the month.  The plant holds a total of 75,000 metric tons of barley, 60,000 of which is malt.  Brewing companies in Croatia and other countries make requests of what they would like for their order, and the plant will mix accordingly…in the end around 45,000 metric tons stay in Croatia.  Vlado also works for a company in Hungary, and they are also working on project in India.

flooding, fields, and the malting plant

After our tour of the malting plant, we headed to Stara Kapela, which is a developing ethnovillage.  Ethnovillages give people an opportunity to see what villages really used to be like in the past, and experience culture, daily tasks and activities similar to how it used to be.  The homes and buildings are built and decorated the same as they were in the past, and the village really is its own being.  Stara Kapela is a new ethnovillage developed through a veteran’s cooperative through the government, giving veterans an opportunity to enrich the community and do something worthwhile.

Stara Kapela ethnovillage

Saturday was rather laidback for the most part.  I went with Nina and her mother to visit the cemetery (cemeteries here are very different in setup compared to what we usually see at home

...here's some pics from the cemetery...the grave sites are different, and there were some really old graves there too that you could barely see the writing on the stones...

and visit some family around the area, checked out an agriculture fair in Oriovac, and then we had a party late in the evening at Zoran’s parents’ house with a lot of relatives.  We had dried meats and cheese, salads, roasted vegetables, roasted lamb, beer, wine, gamishte (white wine and mineral water…yummm!).  Oh, I went to bed at midnight, but found out that Zoran and his friends stayed up until 4:30 a.m. playing cards!

I will be putting up a blog for the rest of my trip to Slavonia after I tour a few farms on Tuesday…hope you enjoyed!!

Pictures

Hey everyone!  I'm all caught up on putting pictures up on Photobucket...there are three albums, and you can access them from the links on the sidebar of this page!  Enjoy!

If I have to do ONE MORE conversion in my head...I think it will explode!

Honestly, though!  I cannot keep doing temperature, distance, volume, and monetary conversions in my head...too much...why can't everyone just play nice and be on the metric system (or everyone else switch to our lovely American ways... Fahrenheit, miles, pints, acres, inches, etc.!)?!?!  I would love to see the look on my face when I'm trying to convert things...oh well, at least my brain is still being challenged to work over here : )

Well, sorry it's been a week, but I've been pretty busy traveling and learning, and not thinking about blogging : (

Sljeme
Let's see here, early last week, I went up to Sljeme (mountain ridge near Zagreb) and visited the Research Station there.  They mostly do research on grazing and pastures there on about 50 hectares (125 acres) and it's part of the University of Zagreb.  They also have a herd of Charolais cattle and sheep that are fed pretty well up there.  I did see one cannulated cow (I forgot to ask if there are more).  Cannulas are basically a portal into a cow's rumen that is surgically fitted to the cow...they allow us to do research studies on nutrition and digestion in ruminants.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a little frustrating that day, because there was only one person who spoke English...and I wasn't around him for most of the day...which made for an interesting day!  BUT, I will say, the workers were very excited to show me around and have them help check waterers and cows in the various pastures!

Research Plots at Sljeme and a small herd of Charolais cattle (gotta love me some cows!)

Field Research on Campus

The next day, two graduate students gave me a tour of some of the research plots on campus and the mechanization used there.  First stop: baling hay...now, you know I've seen this a MILLION times, but they do it a little different over here!  They only dry the hay for a short time, bale it with a regular baler with lots of netting, then they use a bale wrapper, which rotates the bale and tightly wraps it in plastic...this allows all of the chemical reactions, and fermenting to begin to be silage bales...like I said, it's a little different!  They take all of the bales and other feedstuffs to Sljeme to feed the herds there.  Their equipment that they are currently using is all less than 12 years old.

Some other crops and trials they are working on include: spring and winter wheat, barley (2- & 6-row), rye, peas, corn, flax, rape, beets, beans, and some others.  A lot of the trials we looked at had to do with fertilizer applications, density, and varieties.  The most interesting one I saw was winter wheat being grown with peas...nitrogen is taken care of! Of course, I'm not sure how easy it is to harvest though.

Split
Thursday through Saturday, I was in or around Split...on the southern part of the coast of Croatia (the Dalmatian Coast).  Zoran had some obligations with teaching and testing some students at the agriculture high school there, so Nina and I tagged along to enjoy ourselves!  It was a good 4.5 hour drive there, and the landscapes varied greatly...mountains, valleys, plains, different mountains, river valleys, and of course, the coast!  All of these were filled with both large and small villages, hundreds-of-years old fortresses and castles, and beautiful vegetation.


I honestly didn't do a lot, except relax while I was in Split!  Friday morning, we were tourists around the city, visiting the open markets, a very old church, a 200+ year old theater, the parliament building, and of course: Diocletian's Palace, built around 300 A.D. (one of the popular sites around Split).  Friday afternoon, Nina and I enjoyed the sunshine on the beach right behind our apartments. : D

Saturday morning, we traveled to Obrovac-Sinjski (about 41km from Split...or about 25 miles...) to a friend of Zoran's family home.  We had coffee, meat, cheese, AND  a sip or two brandy (at 10:30 in the morning!) of course as a welcoming drink. After some good food and conversation, we all got ourselves ready to go down to the River Cetina...Zoran went fishing, and all of the girls went for a "nature" walk along the river.  The river was gorgeous...CLEAR...and very tempting to go for a nice float! (Can't wait to get back to Montana in time for FLOATING SEASON to start!!!  REDNECK YACHT CLUB!!!)  There were a lot of small plots of land near the river dedicated to growing potatoes, squash, wheat, and a few other small crops and gardens.  The ladies picked as many lemon blooms as they could so that Nina could make her lemon syrup when we got back to Zagreb.  After our river walk, we went back to the house, where we had "cake" (dough cooked in oil), and BBQ for lunch...sausages and chicken grilled along with some good veggies.  Afterward, they stuffed us with coffee and some sort of lemony cake with creamy frosting layers (mmmmmm)!

After we left, we hit the road for another fishing destination, Knin...but with it being so late, AND the World Championship Trout fishing going on, and needing to get home, we did not fish.  We got back to Zagreb pretty late, and it was pretty rainy out, so we all headed for bed to get some much-needed rest!  Sunday we really had no plans (except my plan to get this thing posted!!!)...so Nina and I went to the park to check out the FlorArt Exhibition there...really incredible Flower Art Exhibits!!!!  

Hope you all enjoyed my update for the week...I'll be in Zagreb for a few days this week, then Slavonski Brod for 5-6 days...I hope I have time for a quicker blog this time!

Laters!

High Quality Photos from my trip

THIS IS FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WOULD LIKE TO SEE BIGGER PICTURES!


Alrighty everyone...I know it's been a week, but I swear, I'm working on another new blog as I write this quick little entry!

**I am uploading all of the good pictures from my trip onto Photobucket, a free image-hosting site.  From there, you can watch a slideshow of the pictures, view them individually, and download them (among other things).

**They will be separated by week into albums, I already have Week 1 finished.

**There will be permanent links on the sidebar of the blog under Important Links to each of the albums

DIRECTIONS:


1. Click on the link to the album on the sidebar


2. You will be taken to my Photobucket website, and the album will be previewed on the page


3. To view the photos individually, click on the photo, and you'll be taken to a larger image


4. Here, you really have only two options: zoom & download...drag your mouse over the picture, and a drop menu will appear: either click on zoom or download, and you'll have the higher resolution version of the picture!


5. If you would like to view a slideshow of the album, there is a red "button" on the top right side of the album page that you can click on.  (to return to the album, click on previous page button on your browser)


**If you get lost, you can always return to the album via this blog!**




ENJOY!!!!

Lets Go Boogie...

Well, the last few days have been fun, eventful, and relatively relaxing with the whole crew...including a few Croatian and Czech Republic students :)

Wednesday we started off well rested and with good coffee & conversation...for an hour and a half...and headed on over to the classroom to work on presentations.  Monica & Pavlina (the Czech Republic students) and all of our Montana group brought presentations to give that day.  They talked about agrotourism in their country, and we each talked about ourselves and an aspect of Montana (MSU, Extension, Tourism, Agriculture, and Small town Culture).  It was great for everyone to get to hear about different cultures and learn new things.

Thursday we had completely off, so we made the most of our free time!  We decided to find some good food and go to the zoo, which is right by the campus, so easy to walk to.  There is a beautiful park with plenty of neat buildings, pathways, and little lakes between the campus and the zoo, so we trekked through and enjoyed nature for a while (it's almost like central park in NYC, but in Zagreb...and not as busy!).  On to the Zoo!  Of course there were lions, tigers and bears, and plenty of other animals...we did see some fellow North Americans--black bear, prairie dogs, squirrels, skunks, porcupines, sea lions, and alligators--we did NOT see our infamous Jackelope though!  I was also kinda sad not to see any elephants :(  but we found out they used to have them...one died from a disease, and the other from sadness of being alone :(  Overall, we had a really good time...it was fun walking through the little zoo...I think we all felt like kids again!  Thursday night, we rode over to Zoran and Nina's apartment, where Nina had prepared a fantastic dinner and pancakes for dessert!

Friday morning we met up with all of the students and professors once again to drive up a winding mountain road to the Center for Mountain Agriculture.  At the center, they do a lot of grasslands research, and have a small Charolais herd that they do research on as well.  We toured their new and old facilities, and then headed to the classroom to give our presentations for our case studies from last week.  At the end of our presentations, we had a "graduation ceremony"  from our Case Studies in Agriculture course...and received official certificates :)

On our way down the other side of the mountain, we made a quick pit stop for a view of the city of Zagreb...with an old castle in the foreground!

We returned to the city, and rested up...as all of the students wanted to go out and celebrate one last time before parting ways.  We met up down at the city center and headed over to a popular local pub that also has a brewery.  Probably our most favorite part...the Meter of Beer...pictures below (the number of these we utilized that evening will NOT be disclosed)!  It was great to go out with all of the students and tell stories, and just have a good time.  We really enjoyed meeting all of them and will definitely be staying in touch!

Saturday morning, we finally got to go to the big market up at the city center.  They have hundreds of vendors: linens, fruit, vegetables, flowers, meat market, handmade crafts, etc.  It was like a giant farmers' market...I think we got all of our souvenirs taken care of!

Saturday night we went back down to the city center for one last dinner and ice cream, and saw everyone crowding around a big screen in the square watching a big soccer game...big sport over here!  Headed back to the apartments and everyone packed.  This morning, Zoran & Nina picked up  Marty, Ben, Jon, Brooke, and Nikki...and all of their luggage...and drove them to the airport to head back to the States.  We all had a great time on this trip together, and have lots of memories to share.  I will be staying here for the next three weeks on my own, and learning even more about Croatian agriculture.  I'll sure miss everyone, but know that I'll enjoy my stay here.

Keep checking for new updates!

...next thing we knew, we woke up in front of the Coliseum...

Here's another update for the last few days...

NOTE: Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair!  It's a long entry, but we are caught up (and we included lots of pics)!

Our last stop in Ilok was a visit with one of their area extension agents, Dragun, whose specialty is in viticulture.  He’s worked with vineyards in the area to increase production and quality of grapes and to better the agrotourism in the Ilok region.  He’s also conducted workshops on winemaking and storage to increase quality.  Dragun works with the National Ag Advisory Service to find speakers and presenters, many of which come from universities or larger wine companies (like the one that we just visited), for these workshops.  Programs are chosen based on what farmers view they need and what the agent thinks, using his expertise.  A specific goal is made in the beginning so the program can be evaluated for success later.  He sends in a report to the national office for evaluation of the projects to determine the success of the program.  To gain the respect of the farmers, Dragun said that you need to gain the trust of the people.  You must also work hard to keep it, because once you do one thing to lose that trust, you cannot do anything in the community.

-Nikki-

We headed back to Zagreb, stopping in Zoran’s hometown of Slavonski Brod to have dinner at his parent’s home.  Of course we were welcomed with a shot of brandy…better than the last welcome shot!  The meal was very nicely prepared meal of wild game and vegetables, cooked over an open pit.  We then drove the rest of the way back to Zagreb and met up with Martina and Ivon for a few beers.  We went to a couple of bars and discos until 3:30 a.m…these people weren’t even letting up when we left…a little different experience than home!!

-Ben-

**CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO VIEW ENTIRE COLLAGE!**

Erin, Nikki, Brooke's dairy visit:

We went to Matija’s family farm in Križevci and visited their dairy farm...which was one of the more technologically advanced that we've seen on our entire trip.

- The farm was established 15 years ago, but still continues to improve and expand production.  They currently own 40 hectares (there are about 2.5 acres in a hectare) and rent 10 at 700 Kuna/yr/hectare.

- Their production is currently at 37 milk cows, and plan to expand to 60 milking cows in the next 3-5 years.

- This is one of many farms who partner with Dukat, the largest milking company in Croatia.  In the last few years, Dukat has helped them to build a very modern stable, which cost around 3 million Kuna.  Besides cost help from Dukat, they received 40% of the cost from the government for dairy development (includes automatic regulation, back scratchers, manure lagoon, and an 8-slot milking facility).˝

- Main problems include: milk price, quality of heifers (which are imported), and the amount of land available...they continually want to expand production, but can't because there is no land available to increase their forage production.

- They can improve the operation with better management of genetics and feeding, although there is small room for improvement.  They are currently satisfied with production.

- Matija's family fed us a delicious lunch and supper, along with some great homemade wine...we also visited two other locations that showed us around and of course offered us more wine and snacks : )

...and then we climbed a mountain...and explored the ruins of an old fortress near Križevci.

University of Maribor, Slovenia

Monday morning we left the Forestry Fakultet with our original group of Montanans along with Doug Steele (Vice Provost and Director of Extension in Montana) 3 Ag Fakultet members, Nina, and 2 Czech Republic students and headed north to the country of Slovenia.  We visited the University of Maribor, which has 17 Fakultets (colleges) and 25,000 students—650 of which are in Agriculture.  The Fakultet of Agriculture and Life Sciences is actually based out of an old castle (recently renovated) and its outbuildings.  They own 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of land, which includes fields for crops (wheat, corn, and rape), gardens, vineyards, orchards, a botanical garden (largest in the EU), greenhouses, and 2 estates.

The production includes strawberries, peaches, cherries, plums, and apples (90% of production), among other things to contribute to their brandy distillery (4,000 liters this year), winery, juice (50,000 liters apple juice), and whole fruit sales.  They raise about 1500-2000 metric tons of apples per year, and 5-6 tons of strawberries per year.  They are not very profitable as their budget is around 3 million, and their inputs and profits are about equal (all wages come from sales).  All of their trees are root grafted…Europe has a problem with disease, so roots are imported to be grafted. 

The university is really big on international collaboration, including co-op agreements, exchanges, and international projects/programs.  Their biggest challenges are: loss of agricultural land, changing classification of the land, size of land/production, and the Extension service is not formally connected to the university (actually with a separate association). 

As usual, we were fed a delicious meal…Slovenian, of course!  Mushroom soup, pork, chicken, potatoes, rice, bread, apple juice and wine (both made on the property), and traditional (recipe and name protected) cheese cake.  After the late lunch, we headed over to the winery for a tour and…WINE SAMPLING!  We had a really great time at the University of Maribor, and really appreciated all of their hospitality!  On our way home, we stopped at Trakoscan castle and park…a very beautifully preserved estate with lakes.

Istria

Bright and early Tuesday morning, we began our long drive to Istria, the northwestern cultural center of Croatia.  Our first big stop of the day was in Poreč at their Ag Economics and Agrotourism Institute.  They own 25 hectares of land there (no livestock), and are they are mainly there to do scientific research and commercial projects, help with marketing products, enhance production, and transfer information.  They are actually used more than the Extension service in Istria, since the Ministry of Agriculture completely separated them (they did a lot of the research that Extension could utilize).  Opportunities at the institute include viticulture and olive production, and they also offer certification in production of quality wines. 

Poreč is on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and has been part of Italy multiple times.  The city is beautiful, containing a 1400 year old church, many shops and restaurants, and is a tourism center during the summer months.  We walked along the seaside and touched the water to “become one with the world” as Nina said, and then decided to eat.  We visited a local restaurant that served…you guessed it: seafood…let us tell ya, it was an INTERESTING meal!  We started off with salted sardines (not terrible but not good…look at Brooke and Nikki’s faces below!), and moved on to grilled squid, and fried sardines (not bad at all)...the beer sure tasted good!  Overall, the experience gave us an opportunity to become more “cultured.”

We left Poreč and, as usual, fell asleep in the car.  When we woke up, we were parked along the harbor and staring up at a coliseum…thinking “why the heck would we drive to Rome?!  This is awesome!!”  We were actually in Pula, another cultural epicenter along the Adriatic Sea that was also under Roman influence for a time.  The coliseum is just under 2000 years old, and quite intact…it serves as a reminder of the past, and is connected to the present, as many concerts are held there.  We all really enjoyed this surprise, and really appreciated the experience.

On our way home, Zoran scheduled a visit with another dairy farm in a small rural village area.  They had 60 milking cows, along with heifers in development, and a few calves.  Their milking room is a 6-station herringbone setup, which takes about 3 hours each milking.  The cows all have collars with a microchip, which is important for receiving their concentrate feed.  They walk up to the two feeders which read their microchip and portion their grain according to their production.  The farm produces all of their own forage, but does their processing differently than all of the others…in a way that you never really see it done over here.  They cut the hay, and immediately bale it, then they bring it into what looks like a greenhouse, but has large round, grated vents in the bottom. A bale is set on each vent, and he turns on the heater-blower system…it only takes 7-8 hours to dry the bales.  This is a great system; because you can keep these quality bales for an extended period of time…they also keep all of the leaves and stems intact, making the bales much higher quality.  This was a really neat opportunity to get to see in a different region of the country…the only not so great thing was the extended period driving home scrunched in the car, returning at 1 a.m…

Hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures of the last few days!  See you again soon! 

-Erin, Jon, Brooke, Ben, Nikki, & Marty-

How were your corn flakes this morning, Ben? BEEFY!

I realize it's been oh...about 4 days since the last blog, but like I said before, we don't exactly have the best internet access here.  So, we will be piecing together the blog the next two days or so, and fill you in the best we can!

As for the title of the blog...I don't know how to put a video up yet, but we got a kick out of Ben's response about his Croatian corn flakes and milk...

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THE ENTIRE COLLAGE...AND A BETTER VIEW!!!!

As I promised...here is the pictures of the fantastic apartments we are staying in...don't mind the mess:

These are the Sumarski Fakultet (Forestry College) apartments

Wednesday night, we took in a few of the beautiful sights in the city of Zagreb.  We learned how to take the metro system here, and headed down the the city center, where "old town" is.  Old town is where the original part of Zagreb is...filled with shops, cathedrals/churches, restaurants, cafes, bars, and a big market.  The architecture is beautiful...from Austrian/Hungarian influence...I still can't get over how old and awesome all of these buildings look!  For our evening meal, we went to Nokturno, a pizzeria and spaghetteria, and ate pizza and drank Stella Artois pivo (beer)...which were delicious!!!

Thursday morning we met up in the Ag Fakultet and drank lots of coffee (imagine that), and split up into our American-Croatian student groups for our tours.
Piec Farm Tour:
Ben & Jon went with Ivon (John) and Martina to Melan's farm, here is a little about their visit:
- Relatively poor rural farm area southeast of Zagreb, but Melan is better off than most.
- Primarily a cattle operation with 80 beef cows that are a Holstein-Simmental cross with a little bit of Hereford (they don't raise straight Hereford or Angus cows, because they are too fat with not enough meat...selling livestock is completely different here).
- They said inputs were very expensive, and prices were low, so they are not very profitable...they are excited to join the EU for better markets and prices.
- They also have 60 Holstein dairy cows with 8 modern milking stations, and produce around the national average of 5,000 metric tons per cow per year.
- Have a small horse herd that is used for slaughter and meat consumption in Italy.
- Melan's primary challenges are bad prices, high inputs, poor labor resources, diseases in the livestock, and expensive vaccinations.
- As you will hear plenty of, conversation, food, and drink are VERY important here, they had an excellent lunch of walleye, potato salad, and local sausage (which apparently wasn't very good...)
- They tried a red wine mixed with coke, which is popular here, and they both enjoyed it!

Erin, Nikki, and Brooke went to Matija's family's dairy which is very much on the opposite side of the scale as Melan's.  We will be putting together a summary tomorrow and posting it later!

Eastern Croatia
Friday, we traveled to Osijek, which is in the Northeastern part of Croatia, where they have another college of  agriculture.  Their university is located in an old fort so, again, there is a lot of beautiful buildings.  In a lot of ways, their university is similar to Montana State, with the number of students, divisions of colleges, and educational structure.  We walked around the city, to the city center, cathedral, and of course...stopped to refresh ourselves!

After our visit to Osijek, we travelled further east to Vukovar, center of conflict on the Danube when Serbia and Croatia were at war (Croatian War of Independence).  It was amazing to see what they had left of the city to remind everyone of the tragedy that war can bring, and how they came together to rebuild the city.

After our short visit in Vukovar, we drove up the road to an AMAZING new agrotourism facility that a couple of friends are putting together in the farthest Eastern part of Croatia, near Ilok.  Vlado and his wife, Donna bought some land with a damaged home (from the war) right on the Danube river, and began a vinyard, orchard, and built a winery (work in progress on rest of facility) with 5 apartments upstairs in the attic where we stayed...they basically treated us like royalty!.  Upon entering the property, Vlado and Vinco greeted us, and invited us inside for a welcome drink...homemade brandy...(it burned all the way down!)

After our meet and greet, we drove a few kilometers (sooo not used to the metric system!!!) up the road to the furthest East town of Ilok for dinner on the Danube in a fine restaurant.  We had a wonderful white wine (which they usually mix with mineral water and call it Grashina), along with a chili-ish fish soup, and a platter of walleye, sturgeon, and catfish...MMMMMM!!  They also had a mariachi-esque local band which came over after dinner and found out we were from America...they sang "...Oh Susanna, don't you cry for me..." in a very Croatian accent!!!  We finished off the evening with pancakes (crepes pretty much) with walnut or chocolate filling...absolutely fantastic!

After staying the night at the bed and breakfast, we had a traditional breakfast of vegetables, Hungarian peppers, dried meats, cheese, and a pasta-potato-onion dish...definitely not what we're used to for a Montana breakfast, but it was still great!  After we talked with Vlado (who used to be the Minister of Agriculture in Croatia, and is now a manager for MaltEurope) about his beautiful operation, we hit the road back to Ilok.  We briefly visited with the manager of a very large winery that works with producers in the area for good wine grapes.  We didn't go into much detail or get to see much since it began raining that morning.

This is all we have for now...we will finish updating the last couple of days on our trip to Maribor, Slovenia and Porec, Croatia the next two days...hope you enjoyed!!!

We Made It!!!

Well...after what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it to Zagreb, Croatia yesterday!

There are 6 Montanans on the trip: Dr. Martin Frick (professor, MSU), Brooke Johns (Conrad), Myself (Conrad), Nikki Bailey (Ft. Benton), Jon Sheehy (Big Sandy), and Ben Pehl (Terry).  Our flight left Belgrade, MT at 10 a.m. Monday morning, flew to Denver, then  Chicago (spending an extra hour on the tarmac waiting to take off), overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany (over an 8 hour flight...flying a higher over Iceland to miss the ash), rushed through customs to our final plane, and then a took quick flight over the Alps into Croatia's capitol city of Zagreb!  We got in around 2 p.m. on Tuesday...so basically we lost 8 hours coming over here, so 6 a.m. MT time.

We are staying on the agriculture campus at the University here in Zagreb, which is going to be our base for the next ten days.  I will post pictures the next chance I get, but we are staying in the Forestry Faculty apartments...which are almost brand spankin new!  For the time being, I have to use internet in the offices since we don't have wireless in our apartments.

As soon as we threw our luggage into the apartments, we headed over to the Agriculture Faculty building and met with Zoran.  We had a delicious tray of dried/fermented meats, cheese, bread, olives, and pickles and discussed our stay here.  In order to get our bodies adjusted to the time change and lack of sleep on the planes, Marty and Zoran told us that we had to stay up until at least 8 or 9 p.m.  (lunch time at home) and then get our eight hours of sleep (believe me...we were out like lights!!).

Croatia's currency is the Kuna, which is about $0.20 American, and they speak Croatian here...hoping to be able to pick it up quick!

Backing up a little bit, Zoran Grgic is our "host" faculty...he is an agriculture professor at the University here, and will be taking care of our accommodations while we are here, and there are 5 students from his classes that will be accompanying us on our trip.

Zoran Grgic is the professor speaking in the front of the room

This morning, we started off with breakfast in the cafeteria and drank plenty of instant coffee...which was surprisingly really good!  We learned about the Croatian Ag Service as well as Croatian Agrotourism (will add more later : ).  We then met with Zoran and his students, as well as the Dean and Vice Dean of the College.  During the meeting, the Dean and Marty signed an agreement of cooperation between our universities.

Tomorrow, we will be put into two groups and visit two locations: one is a dairy operation, and the other is a beef and dairy operation.  With the other students, we will be examining the operations and surveying the producers...we will then put together a report on how the operations can be improved and whatnot.

Preparing for my journey across the big pond...

Well...it seems like it was just yesterday when I was asked if I wanted to take this trip over to Croatia with my professor and a few fellow students...and now I'm leaving in just THREE DAYS!

We will be visiting with Croatian farmers and agricultural Extension professionals, learning about Croatian agriculture, and touring throughout the country for the first two weeks, and then I will stay on my own and explore a few subjects in more detail.


Seeing as I'm a recent college graduate and don't have a lot of extra money on hand, I decided to do a pie fundraiser...

...and thanks to all of my generous family, friends, and members of the Montana community, I sold 550 homemade pies and paid for my trip!!! Thank you to everyone who supported me!!


I hope everyone enjoys reading all about my trip to Croatia...come back soon!!!