HELD POST WITH LARGE CATTLE UNIT

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32588, 23 April 1971, Page 14

HELD POST WITH LARGE CATTLE UNIT

Mr H. G. Stockdale, who is now regional veterinary officer in charge of activities and staff of the Animal Health Division of the Department of Agriculture in the northern part of the South Island, once acted in an advisory capacity to a commercial organisation operating the largest intensive beef production unit in Britain,

The son of a fanner m Cumberland in England, Mr Stockdale graduated from the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College in Edinburgh in 1948. Before coming to New Zealand in February, 1968, he had had seven years in general practice, 10 years in applied research with the Wellcome Foundation and with Boots when he was involved in the evaluation and development of commercial products, particularly for intensive livestock production, and the remainder of the period he served in an advisory capacity with the intensive cattle unit in Suffolk, which at one time had up to 4500 cattle between three and 12 months of age in its finish-

ing unit and another 1500 calves on rearing farms. Mr Stockdale, who is stationed in Christchurch, said this week that calves were purchased when about a week old and then put on to rearing farms until they were three months old, when they were brought into the finishing unit where they spent the rest of their life under cover in accommodation of pole bam construction. They were fed on concentrates and limited quantities of straw and slaughtered at about Bcwt liveweight at about a year of age. Mr Stockdale came to New Zealand to join the Department of Agriculture

and was initially veterinary advisory officer at Rotorua. In August, 1969, he became regional veterinary officer for the southern half of the North Island stationed at Palmerston North, and he has recently come to Christchurch to take up a similar position in the northern half ,of the South Island.