Winchmore Field Day

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 10

Winchmore Field Day

The annual field day will be held at the Winchmore irrigation research station next Tuesday beginning at 9.30 a.m. with morning tea followed at 10 a.m. by the official opening. This year the field day is being sponsored by the Tinwald Young Farmers’ Club as part of their twenty-first anniversary celebrations. Among items on the morning programme, Mr C. P. Whatman, of the Department of Agriculture in Ashburton, will discuss the application of an intensive cropping system in association with high stocking rates on medium-light irrigated land; Mr L. Hinchey, of the Central Otago Irrigation Association, will out* line Central Otago irrigation practices, and particularly the irrigation of difficult country; and Mr J. Muir, of Galloway, Central Otago, will give a paper on dairy farming on irrigated light country.

The morning programme will be mainly concerned with production studies and there will be reference to crop responses under irrigation and developments in automatic irrigation systems. After lunch, attention will be given to the design and lay-out of irrigation farms for maximum efficiency. Modern techniques of land preparation will be discussed and indications of costs and efficiency of labour in operating irrigation systems will be given. Research into the efficiency of sprinkler irrigation systems is also on the programme. A booklet giving details of the topics covered by the field day will be distributed. Visitors are requested to bring their own lunch and a

cup (tea and hot water will be provided). If the weather is wet the whole programme will be transferred to the Tinwald Memorial Hall and notification of this will be given in the cancellation services of stations 3ZB and 3XC on the morning of the field day. In the evening of the same day, beginning at 8 p.m. In the Tinwald Memorial Hall, a panel discussion will be held to answer and discuss questions on general agricultural, marketing and economic policy. Members of the panel will be Mr R. C. Stuart, executive director of the Agricultural Production Council, Mr R. K. Skellerup, vicepresident of the International Marketing Executive Club, and Dr B. J. Ross, of Lincoln College. At the beginning of the meeting, panel members will briefly outline their views on the present agricultural, economic and marketing position of the country, following the theme "where do we go from here?” Questions for the panel will be invited at the field day and these will be placed in boxes provided.