Their distinctive southern drawls were hard to miss yesterday as the Americans, made up of team leader Mark Shirley, Keith Normand, Mindy Hotard and Nick Simoneaux, toured the Tamworth Agriculture Research Centre.

While here, the experienced agriculture and aquaculture professionals, stopped by an egg and poultry farm, the Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange and Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School.

A visit to Tamworth Regional Council’s waste water treatment is scheduled for this morning, followed by an excursion to AELEC, before the team packs up tomorrow and moves on to Forster to investigate oyster farming.

“A lot of things are very similar,” Mr Shirley said of the farming processes in Tamworth and those in South Louisiana.

“It’s all about fine-tuning those things that we do just a little bit different.”