Mr Wilkins was awarded a 2013 Nuffield scholarship and has spent only about three weeks at home since May 30. His most recent trip took him across the US, Canada and Europe, returning home in mid-October.
''On reflection it's been mind-boggling the things that I have seen and the corners I have been into and it's something which will be with me forever,'' Mr Wilkins said.
''Travel - I'm kind of over it ... but it's been great and amazing.''
As part of the scholarship he was writing a report on ''The synergies between arable and dairy'' and his most recent trip had provided a lot of information, which he would ''take a week out and start to collate'', he said.
In Nebraska, he had seen dairy farmers who were based in the centre of grain-growing country and would utilise feed from the growers which was fed to cows in the dairy sheds, he said.
It was a great example of what his report was based on.
''The effluent from the dairy farm was piped back through irrigation systems on to the surrounding farms' land and the water part of the effluent was spread through irrigation and the solid part was injected. They used very little in the way of artificial fertiliser.''
He had seen wide use of robotic milking which ''works for some and not for others'', but he saw a future for it in New Zealand.
He believed if New Zealand's dairy industry was to stay on a strong upwards growth curve, indoor dairy farming would need to be adopted on a wider scale.
During the year he had visited Australia, Asia, Europe, North America and South America and had seen agriculture from ''one end of the spectrum to the other''.
''I got a much better understanding of global agriculture.''
He also learnt about the importance of social media to agriculture, he said.
''Agriculture needs to make use of social media to promote itself.''
It was something which was widely used in Asia and North America and the benefits were apparent, he said.
One of the more unusual things he had come across was a farmer in the Netherlands who was feeding his animals hemp.
''It wasn't something he was doing completely on his own accord, but it wasn't an industry initiative,'' Mr Wilkins said.
''Hemp is grown there, but not as a food source, but a fibre source, and he was trying to get more fibre into his animals' diet.''
Mr Wilkins said his report would be finalised towards the end of January 2014, and it would be published during the year.
NUFFIELD SCHOLARSHIPS
Five Nuffield scholarships have been awarded for next year.
Nuffield New Zealand announced the new scholarships at a function in Wellington last week.
The recipients are:
• North Canterbury sheep and beef farmer Dan Shand.
• Marlborough Garlic general manager and vineyard owner John Murphy.
• Masterton sales and marketing entrepreneur Lucy Cruickshank.
• Palmerston North potato grower Paul Olsen.
• Beef and Lamb NZ western North Island extension manager Mel Poulton.
Their research topics are likely to cover issues such as mobile technology, the international distribution of New Zealand's information and technology, turning good farming into big business, potato production and the positioning of manuka and other honey offshore.