Should the show be altered?

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33987, 30 October 1975, Page 15

Should the show be altered?

The question “Is the annual A. and P. Show doing its job?” is both posed and answered in this constructive article specially prepared for “The Press” by Farm Advisory Officers in Ashburton (Messrs P. R. Hockey and H. R. Evans). It is an article which is aimed at promoting thought and consideration of the future as it relates to those who pay to enter the showgrounds. Similar associations throughout the county aim to encourage, promote and advance agriculture in the broadest sense. They do this in various ways throughout the year, but the major effort is the annual show which has become the event of the year in many communities and it usually provides a farming window for urban dwellers. However, many shows have had the same format for many years, even though the intermixing of rural and urban populations continues as a desirable feature. Efficiency is the hallmark of most organisers. “Urban dwellers see row upon row of gleaming, expensive tractors, headers.

cars and the like plus wellfed, beautifully-prepared stock, but do they have the same appreciation of what they are seeing as their rural counterparts,” ask Messrs Hockey and Evans. “The urban dweller today is interested in his farmer cousins and their way of life, but could he not be getting a false impression? He does not have the same close contact with farms because he only sees them in a fleeting glimpse from a car window and he does not know of the $4OOO price-rise for tractors in a year. Wrong Impression ’‘He does not appreciate the fall in income and he may not realise what farming today is all about. What worries us is that many townspeople go home after the show thinking that all farmers have a new tractor and car and that all farm stock is overfed and pampered. “The impression created is of wealth and opulence. While this might be deliberately created, in most cases it is not true. "One of the major problems is the conflict of interest and attitude between town and country in New Zealand. The show has great opportunities to educate and help resolve these, but past formats

have done little in this direction.” Most townsfolk were unfamiliar with the farming jargon, more specifically in the stock world. “Eye appraisal” values that many farmers use in judging stock were not appreciated or understood by others. Most, however, whether town or country, understood figures and sums. Objective These measures of quality had the major virtue of being objective, and since it was both measurable and repeatable, it did not vary and was understood by everyone. “Perhaps then, the quality of stock presented at shows would be better appreciated by the town population if they were judged on these objective measurements rather than subjective ones. Factors such as wool weight, breeding performance, growth rate, meat to fat ratio and efficiency of feed utilisation could form a basis for these measurements,” said Messrs Hockey and Evans. “These standards should also be displayed beside the various animals with some indication of their importance and what they mean. Perhaps many of these factors could combine into one money value, which would probably mean more to both rural and urban people. ‘The other problem with A. and P. shows seems to be the lack of co-ordina-tion or continuity between various aspects. The machinery tends to be in one group, the livestock in another, the cropping entirely separated and so on. No connection “There seems to be no obvious connection between tractors, ploughs, mowers, sheep, beef, fencing, pastures and crops to the unskilled and uneducated urban observer. “To overcome this problem, there seems a need for some central theme to be decided upon for each show where an attempt could be made to knit all these facets together. “If a central theme was sheep, the breeding place, feeding, shearing, disease and the like could all be fitted together to give some idea of how all these farming aspects weld together.