FARM CLUB BUSINESS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 8

FARM CLUB BUSINESS

The latest development on the farm management club scene in Australia is that a group of club advisers in Western Australia are in the process of forming themselves into a business consulting firm through which they will hire themselves out on a contract basis to farm improvement or management club groups. Mr P. M. Falconer, formerly of the Lauriston Farm Improvement Club, is one of the officers. There has been some criticism of the move in Australia on the ground that it might tend to result in the breakdown of the organic unity of clubs which have been accustomed to having their own advisers.

Meantime the drain of farm advisory and field staff personnel to Australia continues unabated. Men are going straight from the valuation and farm management course at Lincoln College to employment in Australia at starting salaries in excess of £2OOO Australian.

“If we accept that an expansion in our farm advisory services is one of the most vital elements in agricultural development here it is a tragic development,” said Dr. D. J. Stewart, acting head of the farm management department at Lincoln College this week. “We have got to do something about improving conditions and salaries.”