Lincoln links with farmers breaking down?

Press, 24 November 1988, Page 40

Lincoln links with farmers breaking down?

With its farming conferences hit by falling attendances, Lincoln College should develop better links with practising farmers, a college council member has said. Mr Edwin Pitts said attendance by the traditional conference-goer, the farmer, had diminished four to five years ago.,

“These links with the farmers seem to have broken down,” he said. Mr Pitts, a member of the college Farmers’ Conference Committee, said the committee wanted a clear indication from the college about the format and ground rules for the 1989 conference.

The council recommended that the principal, Professor Bruce Ross, attend the next committee meeting to discuss the college’s role. The council chairman, Sir Allan Wright, said the day of the big conference had gone. The size of the college had grown and the status of its professors had changed. “They do not have the same drawing power as in the past. As far as the conference is concerned, we should not hang our hats on the drawing power of individuals,” Sir Allan said. Dr Roy Holmes said he believed that the farmers had “had a gutsful” of

advice in recent years and much of it had been wrong. There were better educational techniques these days than being talked at.

Mr John Webster said the council had to put on a conference that was more presentable than just charts and figures. He believed that the college conferences had destroyed themselves. “We’ve got to come back and make an excellent job of it next year or give it away,” he said.

“Next year’s conference has to be a do or die effort,” Sir Allan agreed.