Rotary hosts Chinese farmers

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 24, 13 November 1984, Page 11

Rotary hosts Chinese farmers

Three Chinese exchange students, who are in New Zealand for a year to study farming methods, recently visited the Waimarino as guests of the OhakuneRaetihi branch of Rotary International. They are here to study animal husbandry and its effects upon the ecology of the country "because New Zealand's experience is very important to China which has 100 million sheep." After visiting farms in the area they were entertained to a special dinner in their honour at the Raetihi Hotel. During the after-dinner speeches and the questionanswer session, local members of Rotary were interested to hear something of the farming methods in China and Mongolia. Two of the students — Zhang Bao Zhung, 34, and Rong Wei Cheng, 33, — are from Inner Mongolia while the third, Chen Wei De, 40, is from Xinjiang (Zen Chiang) province in northwest China. Chen Wei De, who is married with one son and two daughters, graduated in animal science at the Xinjiang Agricultural College and then worked on a sheep farm for three years before undertaking postgraduate study in advanced wool science, genetics, animal breeding and animal ecology at the Gansu Agricultural College. Mr Chen who only learnt to speak English a year ago acted as main spokesman for the group. His recreational interests include swimming, stamp collecting and travel.

Mr Zhang, whose wife is a primary school teacher has one daughter. The family live on the Inner Mongolian College of Agricultural and Animal Studies campus at Hohhot. After graduating in Animal Science he became a teacher and has been lecturing in Animal Nutrition for the past eight years. He lists his recreational interests as table tennis, volleyball and music. Mr Rong, whose wife is also a school teacher, has twin 6-year old sons and they live in staff quarters at the Inner Mongolian Academy of Animal Research at Hohhot. After graduating from the Academy he spent two years at the University

of Agriculture in Gansu and is currently involved in research work — sheep breeding and wool science — back at the Academy. His interests include soccer, volleyball, horseriding and photography. All three visitors are devoting their time to research programmes at Massey university, Lincoln College and the DSIR during their year-long visit to New Zealand. In response to questions from their Rotary hosts in Raetihi they explained that sheep dogs were unknown in China and all mustering was done on horseback with each horseman responsible for about 2,000 sheep. They also said that shearing was done both with hand pieces and with electrically powered combs. Farmers in Mongolia and north-west China also had to contend with extremes of temperature (down to - 30° C) and heavy snowfalls.