HOUR ON MODEL DAIRY FARM

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 14

HOUR ON MODEL DAIRY FARM

Visit To Property At Belfast KEEN INTEREST IN HERD The Duke of Edinburgh spent an hour yesterday afternoon on Mr C. J. McFadden’s 220-acre dairy farm at Belfast. His interest in every phase of dairying on the property, which sends about 70,000 gallons of milk into Christchurch each year, was intense and he kept up a barrage of questions throughout his stay on the farm. Mr McFadden said afterwards the Duke was keenly interested in all that he saw and it was an easy and pleasant task to conduct him on the inspection. On the Royal farm at Windsor there was an Ayrshire and Jersey herd and a Red Poll herd was farmed in Norfolk, he said. The Duke showed he had a very good knowledge of the management of these herds, said Mr McFadden. After he had been greeted by Mr McFadden and three of his sons two of whom work on their father’s farm, the Duke was shown the milking shed. There were no cows in the yard and the Duke was able to make a close inspection of the five-cow milking plant, shining in a fresh coat of silver paint. The shed, with its pale green interior, was spotlessly clean and fresh. With Mr McFadden at his side the Duke was driven down the paddocks to see the dairy herd grazing peacefully on the deep lush pastures. The party walked over to the pumping station, a stone’s throw from the Waimakariri river which is the source of water for the border dyke irrigation system on the property and that of a neighbouring farmer. The Duke climbed on to a platform to watch the water, which flows from the river into the side channel, turning the turbine which drives a 10inch pump delivering up to 2500 gallons of water a minute. A group of young people on horseback waited alongside the pump-house to greet the Duke. As he walked back to his car the Duke passed by a large holding-pond in which the British Prime Minister, Sir. Anthony Eden, went for a swim when he was in New Zealand a few years ago. The Duke watched sweet-smelling lucerne hay being transferred from a tractor-drawn lorry to a hay barn already half-filled with 3000 bales of hay, and he walked over to watch water spilling over a paddock from the main irrigation channel. Milkina-time By the time he returned to the milking shed again, the 77 cows he had seen a few minutes before in the paddock were in the yards and for a few minutes the Duke watched them being milked by three attendants wearing white shirts and denim trousers. At one stage in the course of a discussion with Mr McFadden, the Duke could be seen using his hands to explain a point. Later, he stood in the yard with arms folded while the passive cows moved slowly about him. Passing through a clover paddock along a freshly-cut pathway the Duke watched Mr McFadden’s spray irrigation plant in operation—lo revolving nozzles each spraying water over a radius of 75 feet. Ironically at this stage, light misty rain began to fall. At the entrance to Mr McFadden’s modern two-storey home surrounded by closely-cut lawns and a garden bright with flowers and shrubs the Duke was greeted by Mrs McFadden, Mrs B. Perry (formerly Janice McFadden). Miss Pam Littlejohn, the fiancee of Mr J. N. McFadden, and Mr R. E. McFadden. Passing inside the Duke was entertained at afternoon tea in a room gay with flowers and a Christmas tree. Exactly an hour after his arrival at the farm the Duke shook hands with Mr McFadden at the front door of his home and re-entered his car. During his visit the Duke met the Director-General of Agriculture (Mr E. J. Fawcett) and Mr McFadden’s four sons—Messrs T. G., R. J., J. N., and R. E. McFadden—and two of their wives—Mesdames T. G. McFadden and R. J. McFadden.