19 May 2004 Icon Event 'Works Well' for Lincoln

Editorial for Mystery Creek National Agricultural Fieldays feature

Lincoln University is one of the long-standing regular exhibitors at the National Agricultural Fieldays and it has had its own permanent pavilion on the site for many years.

"Mystery Creek has always worked very well for us as a point of contact not only with the rural community but with all those thousands of 'townies' who also flock to the Fieldays," says Dr Jon Hickford, one of the Lincoln University staff members who regularly helps at the Lincoln stand.

"The Fieldays are an icon New Zealand event for country and town alike," he says, and he will be back there again this year with the Lincoln team.

They'll be talking about the full range of courses and qualifications available at Lincoln University but they will also be highlighting the resurgence of enrolments in agricultural courses.

Agricultural qualifications available through Lincoln University include the Diploma in Farm Management, Bachelor of Agriculture, Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture), Graduate Diploma in Organic Agriculture, Postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Science, Postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Engineering and Undergraduate Certificate in Agriculture, plus masters and PhD degrees.

For two of this year's PhD graduates their Lincoln University agricultural science qualifications have proved to be passports to international travel.

Alistair Black of Riverton and Hamish Brown of Cromwell both have Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) degrees from Lincoln and in April this year the pair graduated again from Lincoln with doctorates, Alistair with his PhD in Pasture Science and Hamish with his in Plant Science.

Now with top, internationally recognised qualifications in their hands the world is at their feet. Alistair is starting a research career as a grassland scientist in Ireland, near Dublin, and Hamish has job applications in for Japan and Germany after already spending time in Queensland, Australia, with the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) during his studies.

Both have also presented scientific papers at conferences in Australia.

"The university careers of Alistair and Hamish show just what exciting and worthwhile opportunities are out there for agricultural students and graduates," says the supervisor of their doctoral studies, plant scientist Dr Derrick Moot.

Originally from Riverton, where his parents farm Coopworth sheep, Alistair did his doctoral research at Lincoln University on the role of Caucasian clover in relation to white clover in New Zealand's pastoral system, explaining better liveweight gains under Caucasian clover-ryegrass pastures than white clover-ryegrass regimes. The work was part of a Meat and Wool New Zealand clover research project at Lincoln University led by Mr Dick Lucas and Dr Moot.

Hamish, from a sheep and beef farm in Central Otago, did his doctoral research on the yield and water use of dryland forage crops in New Zealand. From his results he developed on-farm management strategies to maximise the production and utilisation of Lucerne without compromising crop survival.

"Both projects have made very useful contributions to our knowledge of pastures and pasture management,” says Dr Moot, "and it's the sort of practical, applied research that is the hallmark of Lincoln."

Alistair and Hamish are just two examples of Lincoln agricultural science graduates taking it to the world. The University team at Mystery Creek will happily tell you about many others who are making their way successfully along their chosen career paths thanks to a Lincoln qualification.

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