No decline in advisers

Press, Issue 32535, 19 February 1971, Page 12

No decline in advisers

So far ae he knew there was no evidence of a decline in the number of farm advisers in farm improvement clubs or public consultancy practices, Professor J. D. Stewart, professor of farm management at Lincoln College, said this week. He was commenting on a report from Australia published on these pages recently that there had been a 15 to 20 per cent decline in the number of farm management consultants employed in Australia in the last two years.

Professor Stewart said that in fact he knew that one or two public consultancy groups were seeking additional staff. Farm management advisory work in New Zealand, he recalled, had started in a time of great Adversity—during the depression when Professor A. H. Flay had launched the Lincoln service. The initial need had been demonstrated in a time of difficulty and clearly the need for such services was most evident when economic conditions on farms were tight. Nevertheless he added that a farm advisory fee of

$l5O to $2OO was a cost, like fertiliser, which a farmer in a tight budgetry situation might be looking at with a view to making economies. Professor Stewart said he would not anticipate any . substantial growth in farm consultancy while conditions -remained as at present, even though a logical case could be made out showing a greater need for these sort of services at the present time. There was some indication, however, that firms servicing agriculture, such as stock and station agents, were extending their staffs which were concerned with budgetry advice to their farmer clients, and an expansion in this type of

involvement might be seen. He understood that entry to the farm consultancy profession in Australia had been gained by some people who were not fully qualified and this might account for the apparent lack of stability to some extent This position, however, did not apply to New Zealand. Farm management in New Zealand, as identified as a discipline, was nearly 40 years old, whereas in Australia it was a relatively recent development. In the 1960 s the movement in Australia had •undergone a boom growth and this might have accounted for the fact that some of those who had entered the profession were not fully qualified.