Impressive record of achievement

Taupo Times, Volume 19, Issue 97, 15 December 1970, Page 11

Impressive record of achievement

Miss O. M. Castle, M.A. (Hons), who recently retired as senior research officer of the farm production division of the New Zealand Dairy Board, built an impressive record of achievement in the application of statistical method to herd improvement j in New Zealand — work which brought her international recognition. Appointed to the board's staff in 1939 as a mathematician to work on the statistical side with Mr A. H. Ward, then technical officer of the hoard's herd improvement department, and the pioneer of a new concept of progeny testing and herd improvement methods, she has been almost entirely responsiblfe for the development of statistical systems which have made possible the effective application of these techniques. She carried on and further developed Mr Ward's work on progeny testing of bulls, field surveys into dairy farming

problems, analysis of statistical data and dairy cattle selection. She initiated work on the development of herd testing systems and procedure for the selection and proving of bulls used for artificial breeding. It was on Miss Castle's recommendation that the Dairy Board introduced the punched card system for handling herd improvement data in 1949, and her expertise and knowledge played a large part in the introduction by the board of computer processing in 1967. Miss Castle's contribution to increased dairy production in this country has been a considerable one. She has been in a major degree responsible for the sound basis on which the board's herd improvement work has been developed. The board's artificial breeding service, resulting in production improvements which have yet to be matched by any other country, has been based to a large extent on her work.