01 Aug 09 - Waihora Romneys Move to Goudies

To view the 'Wahora moves on' item on the Country-Wide website, please click here.

(L to R) Back:  Dr Geoff Nicoll - Head of Genetics and Nutrition Unit, Ken Burt - Farm Manager (current), Glen Campin - Former Farm Manager of Kakaho Station (Lands and Survey Dept), Duncan Annandale - Former Senior Operations Manager, Alan Still - National Business Manager, Rob Craig - Former technical advisor (Lands and Survey Dept), Nick Todd - Retired Regional Manager (North Island).

Front:  Bernard Card - Retired General Manager, Maureen Alderton - Former data technician for breeding programmes, Dr Doug Lang - Former Director of Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station MAF, Dr Clive Dalton - Former scientist Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station MAF, David Marshall - Former District Supervisor (Rotorua) Lands and Survey Dept.

With the move of the Romney Breeding Programme to Goudies, we thought it would be appropriate to invite the Farm Managers and office staff involved in the programme from the early days to attend an informal day at the new Goudies complex in late April.  We were lucky to have retired MAF scientists Drs Clive Dalton and Doug Lang attend - Doug, along with the late Graeme Hight, was the instigator of the initial idea of screening twinning 2th ewes from Lands and Survey Dept flocks.  Incidentally, Roger Bedford's dad was closely involved in the process right at the start too - we're talking 1966! 

The group heard a potted history of the programme from the 1970's through to the 2000's from a range of staff, including a letter from Peter Guy (the original programme Farm Manager).  We were reminded of some of the mine fields we walked through when shifting from pen-and-paper to computer-based recording, courtesy of Maureen Alderton - one of our very first data technicians.  Bernard Card summed up these reminiscences very well when he said that the success of the Romney breeding programme was due to the people involved - their vision in the early days, and their commitment to see it through and to make it work.

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