1966 Mr Banfield - Grassland Memorial Trust Makes First Award

A former Lincoln College graduate, Mr G. L. Banfield, who is fields superintendent of the Department of Agriculture at Hamilton, received the first  award made by the Grassland Memorial Trust. It is worth £500 and assisted Mr Banfield to attend the International Grassland Con- gress at Helsinki, Finland, this year, and to study agricultural expansion in Europe and North America.

The grassland Memorial Trust was established by the New Zealand Grassland Association to honour the memory and work of the late Dr. P. D. Sears, former director of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the late Sir George Stapledon, of England. 

Of the target of £20,000 set for the trust, only half has yet been collected and £9,200 has been invested in Government stock at 5 per cent interest. It is intended to invest all contributions similarly to ensure sufficient regular revenue to enable the trust to advance the cause of grassland improvement.

Mr Banfield graduated in agricultural science at Lincoln College in 1940, and after five years’ naval service was appointed farm advisory officer at Hamilton and later Thames. After 13 years in the Thames district he was assistant fields superintendent at Dunedin, and was promoted to his present position in 1962. Mr Banfield is well-known for his work in pasture establishment and management, weed and pest control and fertiliser use.

The trustees considered that Mr Banfield, as a comparatively young man with an excellent record and first-class background of farming and research and extension work, would worthily fulfil the objects and intention of the memorial trust. Recipients of the award will give a series of Sears—Stapledon Memorial Lectures.