25 September 1992 Farm Consultants Elect New Chairman

Lincoln University farm management lecturer Rod Plank is the new chairman of the Canterbury/Westland branch of the New Zealand Society of Farm Management.

Mr Plank replaces Ashburton farm consultant Phil Everest who stood down after three years as chairman and now represents the branch as a councillor on the national council of the society.

The NZSFM is a nationwide organisation that includes around 800 consultants, financiers and other rural business professionals. Its role is to represent these people in their contacts with farmers and other people involved in the rural sector.

Nationally, Mr Plank sees the society as having an important role in extension, acting as a bridge for technology transfer from the researcher to the farmer. In 1992 with the establishment of the new Crown Research Institutes this role has become even more important than it was in the past.

On a local level, he would like to increase the awareness in the farming community of what the society does.

"The main role of the society is to improve farm productivity and farmers’ incomes through the provision of high quality advice guaranteed by strict membership requirements," he says.

"Society members are one of the few groups advising farmers who have both an understanding of the technology and finances of agriculture. As a group they understand better than most people farmers’ problems and the probable solutions to these problems".

"Take the recent snow disaster, what other group, apart from farmers themselves, has a better understanding of the short and long term effects of the snow on farmers’ incomes and the wider Canterbury economy".

To raise the profile of the society Mr Plank and other Canterbury/Westland members are organising a series of extension activities that will be available to both society members and others who may be interested. The branch will also become more involved in publicity activities in an effort to convince more farmers and their financiers of the advantages of using properly qualified and reputable farm management consultants.

"In 1992 it is essential that farmers, when seeking advice, use those people who have the essential experience and skills."

Mr Plank has a wide experience in New Zealand and overseas farming. From a Waikato farm, he worked for the State Advances Corporation and as a farm management consultant in the North Island before moving to the Farm Advisory Service at Lincoln College in 1967.

In 1970 he accepted a position as a lecturer in farm management at Lincoln and apart from 3 years as an agricultural extension officer in South Korea and study leave excursions to Japan, Australia and North America, where he looked at the US sheep industry, has been lecturing in farm management ever since.

At Lincoln he has been involved with both Diploma and Degree teaching, farm consulting and the supervision of two of the Lincoln University farms. He is also the executive director of the Lincoln University Property Management Service, a service that provides standard share farming, leasing and farm partnership contracts and the chairman of the University Field Trips and Tours committee. His research interests include the international competitiveness of NZ farming, farm ownership options and the use of commercial farms in the teaching of farm management students.

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