International 4-H Youth Exchange

I have just finished my family near Laholm, Sweden. The Gunnarsson family has a 150 cow dairy farm and a few sheep. It is a very large farm and a very busy one also. There was always something going on. Lars-Inge and Monica have four children -- Karl-Johan, age 16; Erik, age 13; Anna, just turned 10; and Elin, age 7. It was also interesting to note that they were also not married. Karl-Johan is very interested in golf. Golfing here in Sweden is very different from at home. In order to be able to golf you must have a "green" card. You only get this card after you go through a course and then take a test after your course. It costs about $500 in order to take the course and pass the test. That is a very expensive hobby. He also had to purchase golf clubs and the golfing shoes on top of this price. This family is also interested in soccer, like most families in Sweden and most of Europe.

One of the first days that I was with this family I got an opportunity to go into a windmill to see what it is like on the inside. Halland county has many windmills mainly because it is right next to the sea and the wind comes off of the sea. Lars-Inge bought a wind mill last year to produce electricity This windmill is 157 feet tall with a wing span of 138 feet and pumps out 600 megawatt. Most of the electricity produced is sent to the electric company in which they get paid for it. Lars-Inge paid $362,000 for it and said it should be paid off in 10 years. Karl-Johan had a harness while we went up and I was in front of him. I think the windmill was swaying back and forth about 2 to 3 feet. Karl-Johan said that if the wind reaches more then 45 mph then the windmill would put the brakes on and stop the blades from turning. When the wind reaches that speed it is harmful to the windmill. There were several times that happened to the windmills in the area. I really have never been afraid of heights but when we looked out of the bottom of the top section I got a little scared. I guess I really didn't know how far we were really up until I converted meters to feet. 44 meters doesn't sound very high but 157 feet does!

We also had a birthday party for Anna. That was a very interesting time to spend with the family. I don't know how many families greet this way in the USA but this family would greet the host and hostess then they would go to each and every person and give them a hand shake and if they don't know that person then they would introduce themselves. At the end of the night they say goodbye to everyone with another handshake. During the birthday party they sang a song for Anna like we do for Happy Birthday. Then after they got done with theirs then they sang Happy Birthday because I was there. In most homes there is a completely separate room that is only used for parties or occasions like this. We did use this room for this occasion. Otherwise it looks like it is not even lived in at all.

Farming on this farm really isn't any different then at my parent's farm. They have the same concerns that we do. For example, we have always been concerned about dragging manure into the bunk. When Lars-Inge would go into the bunk he would wash his feet with a hose that is very close to the bunk. We had to test milk while I was there. They don't have a person who comes in and tests it. Instead they test it themselves and then send the samples in for testing. Lars-Inge just installed, in August, a brand new Alfa Laval milking system. Alfa Laval originated in Sweden and has moved to the USA. I always thought it was a brand new company just trying to get into the farm market. Alfa Laval is over 120 years old. I was put in charge of taking the samples. Plus I got a chance to see how they milked cows. You have to be very careful around these milkers. When they come off the cow it really flies and if you are standing in the way it can hurt you pretty good. I also got a chance to do a little bit of field work. I spent two days dragging one field and disking another field. By law, the farmers in Sweden are required to have 50% coverage for the winter for erosion control. They make sure there is 50% coverage by planting a winter wheat. They also have quite a few 4x4 tractors. It rained quite a bit while I was there and we definitely needed the 4x4 to get through the mud. I don't think I would have been able to get through the field without it. Lars-Inge has also employed two Polish people to pick the potatoes that he grows. They could not speak English or Swedish so when the guy worked with Karl-Johan and I we had to use a lot of hand motions. Lars-Inge, however, could speak German and they understood that. He had six years in school of it. It was very interesting, one day we were all standing in front of the barn and Lars-Inge started to talk to the Polish person in German, then changed to me and spoke to me in English, then turned to Karl-Johan and spoke Swedish. After he got done he was confused. That is a lot of work to speak three languages all in under 5 minutes.

One of the days that I was with this family we had to bring home all of the heifers and the sheep. I always wondered how they moved them from place to place, like when they slaughter them. Instead of using trucks and cattle trailers, because of the price of gasoline, they rent a cattle truck. It took some work to get the heifers into the truck because they kept turning back on us but after an hour of struggling with them we finally got them home. We also had to bring the sheep home. Lars-Inge rented a pair of dogs to round them up and then sorted them into females and males and put them in two separate pastures. During my vacation time my Grandpa noticed that the sheep's tails aren't docked. I decided to ask Lars-Inge why. He told me that the law doesn't allow them to dock them. The same goes for cattle. I guess it is "abuse" to dock the tails. The more that I talk to these farm families, the more laws that I run into that are completely unnecessary. For example, the law requires that the cows must by able to go outside for fresh air for four months out of the year. That is only common sense to allow the cows to go outside for the summer, at least I thought.

I also got to spend a weekend around all of the Swedish IFYEs that have ever been on this adventure. There have been many Swedish people who have been on this trip, mainly to the USA. As part of "initiation" I was suppose to sell raffle tickets and on the last night we were going to have a raffle drawing for the items that people brought. I also participated on the marketing/advertising committee. I will be the contact person to help advertise the World IFYE Conference in 2003. They will be holding it in Sweden just outside of Stockholm in Sigtuna. I plan to be there for that.

One of the final days with this family I went with several 4-H people to visit some interesting sites. The first place was the Emissions Testing Center. Every vehicle in Sweden must go through an emissions test. The exhaust, brakes, headlights, rust, windshield, shocks, steering, etc where inspected. We tested about 200 cars, 2 semi trucks, and a local city bus. Another place that a 4-H friend took me was to the ambulance garage and SOS Center (911 Center). I was able to look through the ambulance and see what differences they had. Their ambulances are very small. The SOS Center was located in Halmstad for Halland county. There were three dispatchers answering all of the 112 (911 in our country) calls. The police calls were then forwarded on to the police dispatchers. This allowed the SOS dispatchers to concentrate on EMS and fire. We could also see exactly where each ambulance was located at any given time using GPS (Global Positioning System). That was a very interesting system.

The last day of my stay with the Gunnarssons I had the opportunity to visit students who were in the 4th and 5th grades. They just started English lessons in August and now had the opportunity to speak English to me. I was really surprised how well they could speak. I think they did a very good job. I think all of the influence of English music, television, etc. has helped them learn it quickly.
I had a good time with this family. It sure went fast I know that. I will now be staying in Nye, 15 minutes south of Vetlanda. My next newsletter will be around November 12.

Hej Då (Goodbye in Swedish)
Jason Fouks