Rural adventures

Today I spent the day out with a field officer seeing what goes on at one of the distribution stores and out in the field as he visits farmers. The weather was terrible as I left Christchurch, but half an hour down the road it cleared and suddenly the mountains came into view. I really do not get sick of living so close to the stunning mountains.

The Canterbury plains, in some ways, remind me of home. Lincolnshire is equally flat and equally rural. But perhaps a little more populated. And Lincolnshire doesn't have the eagles you see in Canterbury. There are definite similarities.

It was good to spend the day out in the field today, to see another part of how the company fits together. The first call we made was to see one farmer who had arranged for some soil samples to be taken from three of his paddocks. The samples, once taken, get sent off to the lab to be analysed and then when the results come back the field officer will visit the farmer again to work out a fertilisation plan for him based on his plans for the paddocks and the demands those plans will place on the current nutrient and mineral levels. The second call we made was for the second part of this process. A week or so back a farmer had all of his paddocks sampled and this was the follow-up visit to run through his plans with him and what inputs he'd need to make and when and hopefully get him to place some orders.

One thing I'm struggling to get my head around with the new company is the co-operative structure. The shareholders, the farmers, are also the clients. In this way the aim is to make enough to survive but ultimately the company's aim is to best serve the farmers and help them to get better production results and yields and stuff. Any profit made that is not used in improving the company, its assets and product lines, is given back to the shareholders at the end of the year in the form of a rebate, part as cash and part as further shares in the co-operative. There seems an intrinsic struggle within the company model, as I see it in my misunderstanding, not knowing enough, only working there two days sort of a way. There's a demand for commercial success and out-performing our competitor(s), but also the need not to "take advantage" of our clients. It is completely different to my experiences in the commodity trading world where margin and volume and profit and bottom line are all important, where you aim to get away with as much as you can without annoying your client so much that he no longer wants to do business with you.

Last night I was assured by my boss that the car would be refueled. As I pulled out of the store in Ashburton I noticed the low-fuel indicator was on. No problem, I thought, I'll just stop and stick some petrol in it. Only I didn't know if it took petrol or diesel. It was at that point that I discovered my work mobile no longer makes calls, even though it worked last night, the point when I tried to call my boss's PA to find out what fuel the car takes. No problem, I thought, I'll find her number in the contacts list on the phone and then call from my personal mobile. I called and found out it was petrol, and that there was a BP account card in the glove compartment too. But not where the nearest BP station was. No problem, I thought, I'll call the guy I'd spent the day with. I called and found out the BP station in Ashburton was on the way out of town so carried on driving and stopped there and filled up before wandering in to pay with the company account card. Which it turns out needs a PIN, a PIN I didn't know anything about. I explained the situation to the girl behind the desk and rushed out to the car to call the PA. Again from my personal mobile as my work one won't work, as I mentioned. I got the PIN, ran back in, and paid for the fuel. All sorted. And it only took me half an hour to eventually set off for Christchurch.

I got an email from my dad this morning. He's booked his tickets for February. I can't wait to show him around. I'm going to postpone the hot air balloon trip I really want to do until he arrives and do it with him. Joanne's not a fan of heights, you see. Also he's here when the England cricket team at playing an ODI here so we might get to the game too. It all depends what coach tours he organises for himself.