Long service

Press, 21 October 1977, Page 14

Long service

This year’s president of the Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association, Mr D. T. Ashworth, has been associated with the organising and running of the Rangiora Show for 24 years. Mr Ashworth was invited along to the show 24 years ago to help with the stewarding and he has been going to the show ever since. He has served 17 years as a committee member. He has enjoyed the shows in the past and is interested in them because it bought town and country people together. "It is a show to show town people what is happening in the country, it brings the two peoples together. There is not enough of it done these days.” he said. “We can not do without each other.” Mr Ashworth said the shows had given him an opportunity to met a lot of people he would not otherwise have' met. The show was now just the right size. If it became any bigger it would be too hard to organise events, and events would be run late into the evening. Working bees at the ring were held early this year and the committee has been able to be prepared for the show well in advance. The early working bees had enabled farmers to attend before the busy season on farms. The old sheep pens have been pulled down and temporary ones are being made. Mr Ashworth said that the old pens were rotting and it was going to be an expensive task to renew them. The committee decided to make temporary pens which would mean that they did not need to sit out in the weather all year round. Mr Ashworth said that the association was pleased with the number of entries received. Horse entries had dropped, but it had made the show more manageable. Sheep entries were up. The sheep classes were now really only for stud breeders, he said. Farmers did not have the time to prepare stock for shows, but it was in breeders interest to endeavour to present some stock. Mr Ashworth has lived in the Sefton district al! his life. His father, grandfather and great grandfather all farmed about one mile up Terrace Road, from Mr Ashworth’s own property. He runs 800 Corriedale ewes, 60 hoggets, and 30 head of cattie and crops up to 40 to 50 acres of his 330-acre property. His term of president is not the first in the family. He had two uncles who served a one year term. One in 1946 and the other in 1952. Mr Ashworth has played rugby for the Kowhai Club, cricket for Sefton and has been secretary of the Ashley School Boys’ Cricket Association up to this

year. He was on the Ashley Pest Destruction Board for about six years. They have three sons, Gary aged 20, Stewart 18, Richard 16 and a daughter, Julie 14. Today’s farmer had to be an accountant, vet and businessman. “It used to be a way of life, but it is not now,” said Mr Ashworth. "1 do not know where farming is going at the moment particularly in so far as family farms are concerned,” he said. Mr Ashworth said that fanners tried hard to pass the farms to their sons, but they were not allowed to give them the fann, and to gift it over a period of years would mean having to start years before retirement. A son had to borrow a large amount of money, if it were possible, and then the father had to leave some remaining in the fann. Some farmers who did sell their fann to their sons found they had to work at least part-time in retirement to make ends meet. “It is a sorry thing. It is happening to dozens of families,” he said. Fanning in general was also suffering. However, Mr Ashworth feels that the only way the New Zealand economy can pick up is to encourage farmers to increase production. “We must encourage farmers to keep farming,” he said.