More than a teaching centre

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 14

More than a teaching centre

Intending students and people interested in having a close look at the work of Lincoln College will be welcome to attend open days at the college this week-end. Lincoln College is more than a teaching or training centre as a wide range of agricultural and horticultural research projects are carried out at the college.

Visitors will be able to see work going on in laboratories, on farms and in engineering workshops and will be able to learn about animals, plants, soils, environmental science, horticulture, landscape architecture, parks administration and farm management. The college will be open tomorrow and Sunday. Today, a special open day will be held for secondary school, children.

- The open day, tomorrow, will start at 10 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m., and on Sunday activities will start at noon and end at 4 p.m. Free buses with commentators will take visitors around the campus and across the college farms.

The college operates eight farms covering more than 2000 ha. The properties close to the campus will be open for inspection, including the 216 ha cropping farm, 166 ha dairy farm, the agricultural and horticultural research areas, and the sheep breeding unit.

The college also runs a 356 ha light-land meat and wool farm at Ashley Dene, near Springston; a 924 ha hill country property at Hunua, Waikari; and Lyndhurst Farm, a 192 ha irrigation unit near Ashburton. A 28ha orchard is also being developed near Lincoln. The college has a roll of 1800 students (increasing by 50 to 70 each year) and a teaching staff of 160 to 170. About 350 people work at the college.

Students come from most parts of New Zealand and 7

to 9 per cent of the roll is from overseas countries. Accommodation on campus is available for about 500 students. The college has close contact with many developing countries, largely because of New Zealand’s high reputation for agricultural ability and research. Many of the college’s

staff members have been on overseas aid projects, and several people now holding senior positions in developing countries have been students at the college. The Lincoln School of Agriculture was established in 1878, and was the first agricultural training institution in the Southern Hemisphere. There are only two

older agricultural schools in the Commonwealth. The college is located at the intersection of Springs Road and Ellesmere Junction Road, Ikm from Lincoln village. Visitors from Christchurch should travel along the Main South Road and turn left just beyond the R.N.Z.A.F. air base at Wigram.