Great Growth Of Farm Clubs

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30302, 30 November 1963, Page 6

Great Growth Of Farm Clubs

A TREMENDOUS growth has occurred in the farmer-operated rural farm advisory service or farm improvement club movement in Western Australia in the last five years, according to Mr P M. Falconer, former adviser to the Lauriston Farm Improvement Club in MidCanterbury and a holder of the diploma of valuation and farm management from Lincoln College, who is at present on leave in New Zealand.

Almost two years ago Mr Falconer went to Western Australia to become the first adviser to the WonganBullidu Farm Advisory Service centred on Wongan Hills, 120 miles north-east of Perth. He started to give service to 33 farmers in this wheat and sheepfarming area and just recently a second group of the service has been formed, the total membership of farmers having now increased to 66. and on his present visit to New Zealand Mr Falconer is on the look-out for another adviser for the service. The first club in the State was formed in 1958, when Mr R. A. Knox, first adviser to the Lauriston club and another Lincoln-trained man,

went to the Brunswick Rural Advisory Service. Last year this organisation also formed a second group and it has a membership of about 90.

In contrast to this one service in 1958 there are now. according to Mr Falconer, 19 clubs or services working in the State and another 14 have been formed and are in process of appointing advisers. When all of these organisations have advisers there will be more farm management consultants working for them than there are people engaged in similar work in the State Department of Agriculture. Mr Falconer said that the farmers in the State were obviously appreciating the benefits to be derived from membership of these clubs or services more, and also more quickly, than their New Zealand counterparts. Mr Falconer said that he would not hazard a guess as to how many more of these organisations would be

formed in the State in the| next year, but the determin- \ ing factor in their growth I was the supply of advisers of a satisfactory standard, and Lincoln College's diploma of I farm management and rural I valuation course was still the' only really proven source of j supply of the sort of people I required for this work. An Australian Association i of Farm Management Con- : suitants has been formed in I Western Australia with Mr] Falconer as its president. Its membership is at present only 13, but a requirement for membership is that a con- i suitant must have had at I least a year’s experience in | the field and some men now working for services have not j yet qualified on that basis, i One of the objects of the as-; sociation is to ensure that i consultants give a high | standard of service. In conjunction with the Federation of Fann Management Advisory Services of Western Australia. the association plans to hold a farmers’ conference in Perth in midFebruary on the theme, “farm management in focus." It will have among its objects the further establishment of the movement in the community, the correcting of wrong impressions, and reporting to the general public on investigations made by consultants. Although he will not be presenting this particular information to the conference, Mr Falconer has, for instance, done some work on tractor power in the wheat belt. At the Invitation of the sponsors of the conference. Professor A. H. Flay, who is about to retire from Lin-i coin College, will go to j Perth to give an opening! paper called “What is Farm Management?”