WORK FOR WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 12

WORK FOR WOMEN

Testing Dairy Herds REPLACEMENT OF MEN Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, February 21. A concerted effort, is being made by the six New Zealand herd improvement associations and the Dairy Board to recruit about SO young women for herd testing work. They will be engaged for the duration of the war, but it is probable that many of them will be able to retain their positions permanently.

Since the beginning of the present dairying season about 40 women have taken up the work, replacing men who are with the armed forces. A further large number of testing officers have been ('tilled up b.v ballot and will be required to enter camp in March or April- It is to take up their work that women are now required. Candidates who are passed as suitable by the various herd improvement associations will be given a fortnight s course of instruction tit Massey College. and the Dairy Board lias undertaken to pay the tuition fees and cost of travel to and ITon Palmerston North. The first course will begin on February 27 Ute second following im media tely.

The Dairy Board's consulting officer in Hamilton. Mr. W. I>. Corby, who is visiting Auckland in connexion with the scheme, said that tin* women recruited last year were doing excellent work, and tlie plan was definitely out of the experimental stage. Herd-test-ing had boon proved to be a perfectly suitable occupation for women of tin* right type, preferably with country experience. Some of tlie women now employed had their own cars mid were allowed running costs on a mileage basis. Cithers were provided by their associations with horses and traps, which were quite suitable, as the average daily journey from farm to farm was not long. Each farm family undertook to provide the officer with meals and lodging for the night, and to do all heavy lifting for her. Tlie work was of national importance. said Mr. Corby. Britain wanted still'more cheese from Now Zealand, but because of the shortage of labour there was a tendency to reduce the size of dairy herds. This made it. essential that only the most productive cows should be kept in milk. If the average yield was to be sustained and improved, herd-testing would have to be more mid more widely practised.