Field Day At College

Press, Volume C, Issue 29674, 18 November 1961, Page 7

Field Day At College

Details of the full economic situation on the mixed cropping and dairy farms will be given at- the field day which will be held at Canterbury Agricultural College on Tuesday the principal, Dr. M. M. Bums, said this week. Two years ago the college decided to divide the farm into four units—a mixed cropping farm, a dairy farm, a stud sheep farm, and a research farm. All research, with the associated costs, is being done on this farm, while the others are expected to pay. These can be used for teaching farm management. This meets the jocular criticism of “it is all very well for a college to make recommendations. but with the consolidated funds behind them, they don’t have to make it pay.” The financial results achieved by incorporating modern technical methods, as adopted and tried by progres-

sive farmers in the district, will be presented on Tuesday. The field day will start at 9.45 a.m. at the college itself. Visitors will have the choice of three tours of the research, dairy and mixed cropping units. These tours will be made in the morning and again in the afternoon, so a farmer might decide to go to the research farm in the morning and to the mixed cropping farm in the afternoon, or if his interests lie in dairying he may go to the dairy farm in the morning and the research farm in the afternoon. Mr J. H. Oldfield, who supervises the mixed cropping farm, will be leading this tour. He will describe the operation of the farm and show the amount of profit which is being made on the capital invested. Mr A. D. Lowe, of the Entomology Division, with Dr. I. D. Blair, will discuss the yellow dwarf virus situation, and Professor T. W. Walker will deal with topdressing problems on cropping farms. Mr M. G. Holland is organising the dairy farm tour and Mr H. E. Garrett will present the financial picture on this town milk unit Technical factors, including fertiliser programmes, cropping, spraying for bloat and brucellosis will be discussed by members of the college staff.

The research farm will have points of interest for all farmers. They will see the plant science department’s experiments which are under the guidance of Professor R. H. M. Langer. Professor I. E. Coop will present progress results from his nutrition and fertility work and Professor J. W. McLean will discuss his researches on ill-thrift.

During the lunch break. Professor B. P. Philpott will speak on the economic outlook. At last year's field day he gave some price predictions which turned out to be very near the mark. Tea will be provided but farmers are asked to bring their own cup and lunch.