Farm stay appeals

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33564, 19 June 1974, Page 6

Farm stay appeals

The way of life on Mid - Canterbury farms appeals to Miss Cathy Carrithers, of Yubu City, California.

Cathy, who is 17, is staying with Mr G. E. Moore, of Lynnford, Mid-Canterbury, as part of a six-month trip to New Zealand on the Work Experience Abroad programme. The programme is organised internationally by groups such as the Young Farmers Club in New Zealand and the Future Farmers of America Federation in the United States.

Cathy, who arrived in New Zealand last week, has found that much of the old way of life had been retained on farms in the area with “families eating around the fireplace at night.” Near Yuba City, farming had become very intensive and highly mechanised. “All you have to do is press a button to get what you want done,” she said. Her father, a dentist, owns 22 acres of land on which he grows prunes and which Cathy uses to raise livestock, including a herd of duroch hogs which she has shown frequently for the last five years at state and county fairs, with some success.

She t also tends a small flock of sheep, trains and shows horses, and takes an active part in local and state rodeos.

During her stay in MidCanterbury she will be working on Mr Moore’s 550 acre farm and living as part of the family. She hopes later to spend several months in the North Island on a sheep station, and then travel to Australia to further her experience with livestock. Although her main interest is livestock, she has also taken a course with a large American agriculture corporation in operating heavy equipment.

Cathy hopes to go to college to study agriculture when she returns home, specialising ■- in animal science, and then to teach agriculture at high school. She sees her trip to New Zealand and Australia as valuable experience. Two days after her arrival in Mid-Canterbury, Cathy travelled to Whangarei with Mr and Mrs Moore to attend sessions at the national Y.F.C. annual conference, where Mr Moore was presented with the 1974 A. C. Cameron award.

During her stay in the district she will be asked to speak at a meeting of the Y.F.C. in Ashburton.