WORK FOR WOMEN

Southland Times, Issue 24368, 24 February 1941, Page 6

WORK FOR WOMEN

(Special to The Times) AUCKLAND, February 22. A concerted effort is being made by the six New Zealand herd improvement associations and the Dairy Board to recruit about 80 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 arc with the armed forces. A further large number of testing officers have been called up by ballot and will be required to enter camp in March or April. It is to take up their work that women are now required. MASSEY COLLEGE COURSE Candidates who are passed as suitable by the various herd improvement associations will be given a fortnight’s course of instruction at Massey College, and the Dairy Board has undertaken to pay the tuition fees and cost of travel to and from Palmerston North. The first course will begin on February 27, the second following immediately. The Dairy Board’s consulting officer at Hamilton, Mr W. D. Corby, who is visiting Auckland in connection with the scheme, said that the women recruited last year were doing excellent work, and the plan was definitely out of the experimental stage. Herd testing had been proved to be a perfectly suitable occupation for women of the right type, preferably with country experience. IMPORTANCE OF TESTING Some of the women now employed had their own cars and were allowed running costs on a mileage basis. Others were provided by their associations with horses and traps, which were quite suitable, as the average daily journey from farm to farm was not a long one. Each farm family undertook to provide the officer with meals and lodging for the night and to do all heavy lifting for her. The work was of national importance, said Mr Corby. Britain wanted still more cheese from New Zealand, but owing to 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 and more widely practised.