One of the highlights of the 2008 IFAJ Congress in Austria was the visit to a traditional mountain farm. All of the participants in that tour just raved about the pastoral scenery on such a perfect day they expected to see Julie Andrews dance up over the hillside singing the “Sound of Music.” Unfortunately, Chuck and I did not get …
Traditional Slovenia Dancing
I mentioned traditional Slovenian dance in an earlier post and that’s what we saw at our final dinner of the IFAJ Congress. IFAJ Congress 2008 Photo Album AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2008 is sponsored by: and
Dancing To Quasimojo
I don’t know when the first Quasimojo performance was at an IFAJ event but they’re still going strong. This year’s Congress found them playing on stage after our final dinner in Portoroz, Slovenia. We had just finished all the speeches and awards and were full and it was late. The band has a kind of flexible membership and somehow seems …
Pumpkin Seed Oil
A year before the IFAJ Congress 2008 we were given packets of pumpkin seeds to plant and then we were supposed to send in or bring photos of our pumpkin plants. I tried but let’s just say growing pumpkins isn’t one of my things. We saw lots of pumpkin fields but never got to visit any when we were in …
Slovenia Ag Group
While we were in Slovenia at the IFAJ Congress one of our hosts was Ciril Smrkolj who is President of the Slovenia Agriculture and Forestry Chamber, a primary ag group in the country. I spoke with him at our closing dinner. He’s very much a pro-agriculture kind of guy. He says that his organization does work on promotion and marketing. …
Wine Queen of Slovenia
The Wine Queen of Slovenia this year is Svetlana Sirec. She got quite a bit of attention from the boys here in her wine queen dress, complete with red and white grapes. I spoke with her at our last dinner of the IFAJ Congress. She basically works to promote wine in country and I wish I could point you to …
Franz Fischler Concludes The Congress
I like the way Fran Fischler, President of the IFAJ Congress 2008, started his remarks at the end of the event. “Everything has already been said but not by everybody.” He then proceeded to thank all the people who worked to make this Congress a reality, including all the sponsors. He pointed out how different farming is around the world. …
Mike Wilson is New IFAJ President
The new President of IFAJ is Mike Wilson, Farm Progress Companies. On one of the early nights of the IFAJ Congress we held a little private reception for Mike after a dinner in Graz, Austria. It was a surprise and I think you can see that in his face in this picture. We were at a very nice place right …
David Markey Relinquishes The Reins
The final night’s activities at the IFAJ Congress was a historic event for me. The only IFAJ President I’ve ever known up until this Congress was David Markey and this was when he turned the reins over to a new leader. I can tell you one thing. When you’ve got a group of people from countries all over the world …
When Did You Use One of These Last?
Here’s something you just don’t see much any more. Telephone booths. I remember when we used to be able to unscrew the mouthpieces and plug our recorders into them with alligator clips to send audio back home. I also remember moving to Missouri and stopping at one of these in north Illinois during the winter to call home when the …