North Canterbury News: September 05, 2019

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RURAL LIFE 42 North Canterbury News, September 5, 2019 School’srural programme is expanding By DAVID HILL Rangiora High School’s landbased studies programme is expanding. The schoolisone of few in the South Island to have its own farm on campus, giving students from anonfarming backgroundataste of agriculture and offering awide rangeofruralbased subjects. Gareth West has beenhead of landbasedstudiesfor sevenyears and saysthe farm is like an outdoor classroom. ‘‘We operate a50acre stretch of land whichisassociated to the school, so we are able to bring the students here on a regular basis. ‘‘In alot of ways it’s like our second classroom. ‘‘We do alot of work out here that brings the practical work backinto the classroom and vice versa,soitgivesthe studentsa really good contextofexactly how things operate. Sure, you can learn things in text books, but until you’re out there practising it, sometimesit’s quitehard forthe students to understand,sohaving this facility is just fantastic.’’Hesays the farm meansstudents with no rural background can get ataste of farming. ‘‘There’s apercentage of our families who comefrom Rangiora and other small townsand don’thavealot of landaround them,but this programme enables them to get handson and get afeel for whatit mightbelike to work in the agriculture industry which Ithinkisabig eyeopener.’’ Mr Westsays one of the challenges is overcoming perceptions. ‘‘There is aparent perception of agriculture as ‘a working man’s job’, but we tie in wellwithLincoln and Massey (universities) and there’s lots of opportunities for top science and maths students. Going through the age groups, there’s an equal amountofboys and girls in the programme and Iguessthat’s indicative of the way things are operating onfarm thesedays. ‘‘You don’t have to be massively big and strong to operate in afarmsituation.’’ The farm offers arange of subjects from agribusiness, agriculturaland horticultural science as apathway for those lookingahead to studying at Lincoln or Massey Universities, to the more practical rural andequine studies and a Primary ITO academy. Rural Studies pupils gain work experienceonlarger local, bestpractice farms fromYear 12. PrincipalKaren Stewart said agribusiness was introduced this year as a Year13subject after community consultation andwill be offered in Year 12 fromnext year. Thereare plans to develop the horticulturalscience programme further to meetthe industry demands. The farm runs 150 ewes and is busy with newborn lambsand somebobby calves havejust beenbrought in for fattening. ‘‘Wetie in the lambing to happen within school time, so the students can see what goeson,’’ the school’s business manager, David Lowe,says. The school has aTeenAg (young farmers) club, which helps farm manager Bruce Ayres with feeding the animals during lunchtimes, and acattleshow team, which has had stockjudging success. Out on the farm ... Rangiora High School head of landbased studies, Gareth West, left, principal Karen Stewart and business manager David Lowe discuss the farm’s progress. North Canterbury Based NEED ATRAILER? SRT Quality Trailers –Built to aStandard –Not aprice •Hot Dip Galvanised •Quality NZ made Components •Custom Builds •Competitive pricing •Repairs &Light Fabrication SRT Trailers Ltd 0800 697 886 www.srttrailers.co.nz •e-mail: sales@srttrailers.co.nz 2185403 YOUR LOCAL AGENT FOR ALL SIMBA MACHINERY PARTS 20” SCALLOPED DISC TO SUIT SIMBA Suitable for Simba X-Press/DTX/SL models Looking to the future ... Gareth West says more changes are in store. PHOTOS: DAVID HILL from $ 49 95 +GST Roger Hunter Parts Manager 0275 071 022 1George Holmes Road, Rolleston 03 349 5975 Canterbury Full Cultivation and Drilling Service Skilled operators of large, efficient, modern equipment •Horsch Terrano 4-metre Primary Cultivator •Amazone Catros 6-metre MultiDiscswith Roller •Amazone CayenaFine TipTyne Drill 6-metre withRoller •Maxitill and Vaderstad Roller Combination 6-metre Accurate GPS-controlled tractors in autosteer McHale Fusion RoundBaler Wrapper Combi Unit for individual wrap Straw, Hay, Baleage, large 4x3 sqs and round bales. Full CerealCrop Management options HURUNUI PH 0274 360 342 Sam Bethell (0274) 360-342 or Cameron Gray (027) 373-1814 1996974
RURAL LIFE North Canterbury News, September 5, 2019 43 Simmental overtake Angus SouthCanterburyfarmersDavid and Jayne Timperleyhave long knownthe eatingqualityof Simmental beef. Simmental, abreedtraditionally recognised for its fast liveweight gain,has toppled Angusfor eating quality in the results of the latest Beef +Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ) trial. The BLNZ beef progeny test, established in 2014, compares bullsunder commercial farming conditions.Itinvolves mating2200 cows and heifers ayearand assessing steers for their finishing performance and carcass traits. This year’s trialsshowed Simmentalswere reachinggrowth and eatingqualitytargetsmore quickly than other breeds. Simmental outranked Angus for beef eatingqualityreservegrade. It had an average score of 44.6%, while the Angus averagewas 43.8%. Of the 52 sirestested, Simmental rankedthree and four.The highest ranking Angus was 14. Mr Timperley, of Opawa Simmentals, said more farmers shoulduse aSimmentalbull — they would not lose out on meat quality, and would gain exceptionally quick growth. The couplehave 110Simmentalcows on their farmatCave, South Canterbury.They registeredtheir stud in 1993 and havebred for good temperament, easeofcalving, good growthrates,and abilitytothrive in any commercialsituation. Mr Timperley said the Simmental breed,originallyfrom Switzerland,‘‘took offwithsucha hiss and aroar’’ in New Zealand that all sorts of undesirable characteristics were released on to farms.The breederswho stuck with Simmentalshad since ‘‘sorted’’ perceived issues suchas temperament, he said. ‘‘Theygrade out well andthey eat well.’’ Anew beat ... Senior Sergeant Greg Cottam. PHOTO:ROBYN BRISTOW New police job has awidefocus By ROBYN BRISTOW Greg Cottam is working to a new beat. Senior Sergeant Cottam has been appointed area prevention manager for the Canterbury ruralregion,based in Rangiora. It is apositionthat is geographically as wideranging as the many parts of the jobheisresponsible for. Whileworkinginwiththe response seniorsergeantsin the Hurunui, Waimakariri and Selwyn districts, he will also work with agencies and organisations, building relationships to help prevent family harm, and ensure support in the areas of mental health and suicide. He is also tasked with ensuring staffare in the right placeatthe right time to deal with spikes in crime,hot spots wherethere are car crashes, and targeting priority offenders. Whilehis duties may be new, Mr Cottam is familiar with ruralCanterbury. He started on thebeat in Rangiora in 1998 beforemoving to Christchurch to become a detective. He qualified before returning to Rangiora in 2002, but afterthreeyears he returned to the city and the CIB, where he became a detective senior sergeant. Mr Cottam says prevention is an interesting areatobe working in. ‘‘We haven’tbeen able to arrest our way out of solving crime.But whatwecan do is prevent it through working and developing partnerships.’’ He says atrialputting agencies and police in the same roomimmediately after a family harmincident was recently carried out in Christchurch and Waikato. The IntegratedSafety Response programme, aimed to combat domestic violence had proved so successful it is now beingrolled out nationwide. It also involves having a familyintervention team on hand within 24 hours for the most serious cases. He saysthe coordinated approach had led to more reporting of crimeand a reductioninseriousharm. The focus is on preventing familyharminkids, and getting to the bottomofviolenceand finding ways to help. ‘‘If we can make changes for those families, it helps create a safer environment for children to growupin. It is abig project. The whole aim is to prevent homicides and seriousharm and findingways to help.’’ Often this couldbeassimple as helping someonetoget a driver’s licence, givingthem self esteem and preventing them from rackingupfines and demerit points for driving offences. Extra funding has allowed the employment of threepolice staff across rural Canterbury to deal with family harm over the comingmonths. One would be stationed in Rangiora working with agencies and nongovernment organisations. Mr Cottam saysa key message is forpeople to reach outand ask for help if they knowanyonesuffering from familyharm, having mentalhealth issuesor needing support in otherways. Familyharm tookupalot of policetime, but he is keen to hear about other issues in North Canterbury as well. ‘‘I encourage people with information to share it with policeasitmay be the pieceof the jigsaw that solves acrime, or helpspeople in distress. ‘‘The police are the only members of the public who are paid to givefulltime attention to duties that are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare.’’ Call 105togive out nonurgentinformation, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if callers want to leave confidentialinformation. 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North Canterbury News: September 05, 2019

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