COMPETITION FOR PASTURES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 16

COMPETITION FOR PASTURES

SUGGESTION FOR NORTH CANTERBURY

“I think a pasture competition for North Canterbury would be an excellent idea, and I feel quite sure that departmental officers would be available to assist in the matter in any way in which they were required,” said Mr R. McGillivray, Fields Superintendent of the Department of Agriculture, when commenting yesterday on the suggestion made by Mr C. Bassett to the North Canterbury provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union that North Canterbury should follow the lead of Otago and hold a field competition in grasses and root crops. Mr McGillivray said that during his career with the department he had judged and had been generally associated with many pasture competitions. He suggested that if anything in the nature of a championship pasture was to be competed for, it would be necessary in the first place to eliminate quite a number of the pastures which might be entered so that when it came to allot the championship there would not be too many in the final competition. The suggestion of Mr Bassett that branches interested should hold their own competitions and that the winner in each, competitton should be eligible to enter for the championship prize was a good one, he xemarked. “I feel- quite sure that a competition of this kind would clearly indicate that the better types of pasture plants now used by many farmers would prove to be winners when it came to the championship,” concluded Mr McGillivray.