10 December 1996 Tripp scholar drawn to cereal farming and wheat research

An honours degree student with a keen interest in cereal farming and research, Nikki Penno of Ohoka, is the 1996 winner of Lincoln University's JMH Tripp Agricultural Scholarship.

Established in 1944, the scholarship commemorates the life and work of John Mowbray Howard Tripp of Orari Gorge Station, son of pioneering Canterbury high country settler Charles George Tripp who, with JBA Acland, occupied Mt Peel and adjacent runs in the 1850s.

JMH Tripp's grandson, David Tripp of Ashburton, represented the family in making the award to Nikki.

Brought up in Waimate on her parents' mixed cropping, sheep and beef property (father David has just stood down as chairman of United Wheat growers), Nikki has just finished a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) degree at Lincoln University.

"Most of my degree has been based around cereal science," she says, "and last year I was an exchange student at Oregon State University where I was able to work in the Wheat Breeding Institute with Professor Warren Kronstad, a world authority on wheat.

"That was a great experience for anyone interested in cereals."

At Lincoln Nikki's Honours degree research project, supervised by Dr Derrick Moot of the Department of Plant Science and Tim Lindley of the NZ Institute for Crop and Food Research, dealt with achieving colour consistency in New Zealand oats.

The research, stemming from colour being an important quality issue for oat millers – "For example, everyone wants their muesli bars to be nicely golden," says Nikki – examined reasons for its variation from season to season and among cultivars.

Now with her academic studies behind her and awaiting graduation in April, Nikki has a short-term research position with the Foundation for Arable Research, at the Canterbury Agriculture and Science Centre, Lincoln.

It's familiar territory as she has spent many summer holidays at the Crop and Food Research Institute which is also based there, working on wheat breeding genetics and grain food research.

Nikki says she enjoys working with farmers and hopes for a career which will keep her at the interface of research and production in agriculture.

As far as wheat is concerned, she says it is essential that research continues.

"And the focus needs to be on maintaining the high quality of New Zealand wheat," she says. "That way our wheat industry will remain competitive in the international arena."

Describing the award of the Tripp Scholarship as "fantastic", Nikki says it has allowed her to finish her degree on a really high note.

The annual award of the scholarship is always followed closely by members of the Tripp family who, believing in the importance of agriculture to New Zealand, take a keen interest in the calibre of the recipients. Candidates for the scholarship must show through their academic and other attributes the potential to make a contribution to the future of farming in this country.

Presenting the $1200 scholarship to Nikki, David Tripp said the selection committee was particularly pleased this year to see a top candidate coming forward with an interest in cereals as it was an area of agriculture that needed all the research, development and funding it could get.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.