Communicating with farmers: Using effective displays & exhibits

By Clive Dalton & Geoffrey Moss

Getting a farmer's attention - what stops crowds nowadays? Models, challenges, puzzles, pictures and posters, demonstrations and displays. A 'must-read' guide to persuasion and effective communication when facing the rural business-person.

How is YOUR exhibit or display going to be noticed in this lot?

Displays and exhibits have always been a popular way to get information across to farmers. Rural folk like to ‘see’ things in preference to reading about them. Modern technology should make displays and exhibits more effective, but they will still fail unless some basic principles (discussed below) are followed. Failure can mean a massive waste of time and money, and frustrated providers and receivers of the information.

What’s the target?

How many of these people will come to your exhibit?
How many will just walk on by?

Get this clear before you start:

• Who is the audience?
• What is the message?
• Is a display or exhibit appropriate?
• How much space have you got?
• Where will your exhibit be?
• Who is going to design it?
• How much time have you got?
• Who will staff and service it?
  
• What is the budget?
  

The question about the budget should always come first, but it’s amazing the number of people who start planning and making displays with no idea of what it’s going to cost, and where the money is coming from. See "Further reading" for how to set out a detailed budget.

The type of audience needs a lot of thought. The most important issues are age and sex. If you want to change things on a farm, you need to think about who is going to cause that change and make decisions about your message back home on the farm. Who do you think will even dare raise the question for discussion.

Where your exhibit will be is often related to how much you paid for the site. Make sure you inspect the site before you start designing anything

Examples
One good example was messages on ‘producing clean milk’ which we in MAF aimed at male dairy farmers for 30 years, when we should have aimed it at the women on the farm who knew all about hygiene and who were zealots for cleanliness. We missed misjudged the target.

Another good example is the generation gap, where son thinks the new idea is great and will make millions, and Dad declares it won’t work and they cannot afford it in any case. Who do you have to convince?

Seating
At field days when farmers are expected to walk around a series of displays, and stand to listen to the messages at each point, somewhere they need to sit down, especially if the older generation will be in your audience. Seating need not be expensive and farmers are quite happy to sit on hay or straw bales.

What seems to happen is that when have paid a few hundred dollars per square metre for a stand, they see it as a waste to fill some of their exhibition with seats. It’s not a waste.

When legs and body get tired, the brain switches off, so remember this about your audience.

Space is an important issue as you may have to pay for it. At major events space is usually sold in 3m x3m units, and this can cost a few thousand dollars. So it must be used effectively. If people don’t stop at your stand, at these prices you really have wasted money.

 This display has included nice seats. Why are there no farmers?

Has their  investment been worthwhile?  How would they measure that?

Why a display or exhibit ?
Answer this question in your priority order. Don’t have any more than three answers.

• Meet clients
  
• Teach
• Show and tell
• Demonstrate a product
  
• Motivate
• Bring about change
• Create awareness
• Offer a service
• Improve your image
• Make a sale
  

Promoting an ‘Image’

An expensive corporate stand with glossy brochures.
Who is it really for? What's the farmers' take-home message? Why are there no farmers there? Why are the allstaff talking to each other and not  soliciting passers by?

This is a legitimate reason for and exhibit so some organisations can meet their clients. There are plenty of examples in farming like pest control and environmental organisations.

But how often do you see a massive display, covering mega square metres and lit up like an ocean liner where corporate organisations have spent tens of thousands of dollars. I can only conclude it was to make them feel good, as there was no ‘take home message’ for farmers, other than a fancy brochure that got binned around the corner. The enclosed corporate pen may survive.

The message - to be effective
When thinking about your message, think about human behaviour. A bit of animal behaviour can be useful thinking of humans as animals and not vice versa. Effective messages must be:

• Simple
• Interesting
• Informative
  
• Stimulating
• Have a memorable ‘take home’ message
• Topical
• New
  

The outcome of all these are to:

• Cause action
• Make a sale
  

Time limits
Remember the 30-second rule. It’s supposed to takes about 30 seconds to create an impression, and about 90 seconds to capture an audience – so time is not on your side. TV advertising is cutting down concentration time to even shorter times, and there are complete cooking programmes now which only take 60 seconds.

How to STOP your audience

A good crowd stopper - 'show and tell'.

The exhibitor is enthusiastic about his product and it shows.

At events where people are free to move around, unlike a seated audience, the first job is to stop them walking past. So it’s possible for exhibitors to spend a fortune on their exhibit and few folk stop to see it. People like sheep are a flocking species. They will stop to see why others have stopped.

So think long and hard about what makes people stop, so they will come into your area. Use these singly or in combination:

• Something new
• Something with a 'wow' factor

My tractor is the bigger than yours!

• Action – things that people can see, hear or smell.
• Noise. This attracts people but in very noisy environments like large field days, your noise may have to be louder than your opposition to attract attention and may put people off.
• A crowd creates action with someone talking on a loudspeaker as others may think they could be missing out on something. But a packed stall where no more can get in will put others off as they can’t see anything.
• ‘Giveaways’ create action – but do this carefully as some folk don’t like being ‘accosted’ to take something even if it’s free. The pretty girl trick is used to get males to take material and this can get sleazy and not for farming events.

 Balloons and toys are always popular.  Sadly this wee girl hasn't read the notice - the toys are for sale!

• A quiz with prizes – heard over a loud speaker. Seeing others winning certainly attracts others, no matter how small the prizes are.
• Humour – cartoons, with added action if the cartoonist is drawing new ones.
• Smells and tastes – free food or drink samples are always a winner, as people think it will save them money buying food.
• Flashing lights – these used to attract rural folk but it’s probably been overdone. Rural folk have had enough of this.
• Personalities - Comedian/singer/sport’s personality. A well-known performer will draw a crowd but there will be a large fee involved. Make sure you know what they are going to say and do, as some famous sports personalities in the past have been a disaster, assuming that rural folk like filthy jokes. They don’t.
• Animals. These always attract people.
  

Ideas for displays or exhibits
Here are a few principles to remember to stop people and get them into your area.

KIS principle – keep it simple

A sheep breeder's small area shared with others to reduce costs.

One big picture, few words, one chart, some sheep - a good simple message.

There’s nothing worse than when every available space is filled with clutter, so that if there ever was a message, - nobody is able to crack the code. Such exhibitors must be worried about what they have paid, and don’t want to waste a square inch of it.
Remember that ‘less is more’ and the brain likes space around things. Have one big clear message if possible and certainly never ever more than three.

A poor and un-manned display.

Why would anyone stop to read and leave their details?

Have new information
If you have nothing new, then most folk will walk past in their search for something they have not seen before. People don’t have time to waste on old news.

Types of display or exhibit

1. Contrast and compare
This is a good idea if the comparisons are real and meaningful and not a mass of small figures on spreadsheets in complicated coded jargon. Figures must be easy to see. In comparisons, make sure you don’t upset any commercial sensitivities which will end you in court.

2. Models

Scale model of woolshed used by salesman to show what the finished job would look like.
Much easier to visualise than a builder's plan.

These were popular in years gone by and worked well e.g. model woolsheds and farm dairies. Electronics can now be incorporated with models for greater impact. Models are expensive to make and have to be carefully handled. If they need to travel they need damage-proof boxes and clear instructions inside the lid for assembly, and return.

3. Challenges - puzzles and quizzes

A test of dexterity or skill will attract both young and old

These must be relevant to your message, and the risk of ridicule by giving the wrong answer is not high. Make the questions relevant to your topic that are not ambiguous and create discussion or debate. Have some easy and some hard questions. Have some pathetically easy and see how suspicious folk are, e.g. How many wires are there on a seven-wire fence?

You will need a quizmaster who should be a bit of a comedian to get people enjoying themselves. The problem always is that so many hands go up together that you have to pick somebody as you can rarely see who was first. Make sure you pick people from around the crowd, and some children who will answer for their parents.

4. Pictures
Pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words, and if they are really good they’d be worth more. Today with digital technology there’s no excuse for poor pictures. Here are some points to consider.

• Only the highest quality pictures will do.
• Don’t use old pictures – take new ones.
• Photos should be relevant to the display.
• Use large shots (eg panoramas) for backdrops.
• Avoid a mass of small prints covered in plastic.
• Use a few large prints for impact.
• Keep captions large and short.
• Leave plenty of space around pictures.
• If you use a ‘slide show’ make sure there is room for all to see and they don’t block the crowd flow. Make sure the technology works and you have backup.
  

5. Live exhibits
Live animals always create an interest but remember these points:

• Display animals should be good specimens.
• They should be quiet and be happy to be tightly confined or tethered.
• They should be clean and well prepared.
• Animals need feed, water, shade and shelter.
• They need enough space to be comfortable.
• At the end of the day in a small pen, they may need to be taken to a large rest area where they can exercise.
• It’s a good idea to have two teams of stock so each only spends one day at the exhibit.
• Make sure the animals cannot be teased by small children or can cause injury to the public.
• Make sure you know how to contact a veterinarian at the exhibit.
  

6. The ‘peep show’.
This always arouses interest through curiosity, but inevitably it can cause congestion with people waiting to have a look, and probably losing patience and walking away if they have to wait long. So it’s important to have more than one viewing place.

This concept can be extended to the Aladdin’s cave or ‘chamber of horrors’ where people have to go into a dark entrance way with low lighting in the area to see the exhibit. Give this careful thought as it may scare children (or attract them) and it may be a great venue for pickpockets!

Humans are like sheep and are generally loathe to enter a stand if they cannot see a way out, so have a clear flow in your exhibit and go sparingly on the dull lighting.

7. Working demonstrations

These are always winners provided there is:

• A good commentator.
• A good sound system that does not fail.
  
• An interesting message.
• Plenty of action, e.g. more than one activity at the same time.
  

8. Poster displays
These are used at conferences or meetings where there is too much information to be given as spoken presentations, so some authors are offered wall space to present their findings or show their product. They are not easy to get right, and you see some very forgettable examples. Consider these points:

• The venue. So often it’s the foyer which people race through going to other ‘important’ places, and it’s the place where morning and afternoon tea are served. After being locked up in the formal sessions and being desperate for a drink, there’s often little chance of anyone even talking to you.
• I have seen many scientists jut print the paper they would have read, and stick it on the wall! Keep the words to a minimum and use the ‘newspaper principle’ of the inverted triangle – get you message in the first paragraph.
• Use big attractive photos with well-written captions. Copy the ‘photo essay’ principle.
• Have extra information as an attractive handout.
• Make sure you are there when your clients are there.

9. The un-manned stand
This is to be avoided like the plague, as the chances of stopping people is very low. However, if circumstances dictate that this is your only option, your only hope is to use large pictures with massive impact, and very few words. You have got 30 seconds or less to make passers-by hesitate and maybe read one headline. The place to leave their contact for more information needs to be very clear.

10. Graffiti boards
When farming was in the doldrums in the 1980s at the MAF display at the National Fieldays we put up some massive blackboards for people to express their feelings. It was an amazing success, and there was a crowd there all the time reading and writing.


General points to remember

• Have a good simple and clear message.
• Don’t try to say too much.
• Make it topical.
• Use simple language.
• Limit the number of words.
• Proofread your words and double check your data.
• Use upper and lower case – only use capitals for HEADINGS.
• Don’t use fancy fonts.
• Rectangular shapes are better than squares.
• Round off figures to whole numbers or at most one decimal place– and use charts with colour.
• Have neutral backgrounds and use bright colours for your message.
• Put more extensive information in a brief handout.
• Use people who are good communicators on the stand.
• Get them to be proactive and make first contact with the people – but don’t be too pushy and aggressive. Farmers hate that.
• Any questions they cannot answer – get contact details and make sure these are followed up immediately after the event.
• Staff should be dressed appropriately for the event. Farmers are now very suspicious of people in suits, wearing black slip-on shoes and a mobile phone permanently stuck in their hand!
• Staff on a stand should be talking to customers and not to each other.
  

What kills an exhibit?

• No message
• Grotty presentation
• Clutter
• A person sitting on a chair on their mobile phone.
• Staff on the stand in huddles talking to eachother.

The farmer in red is waiting till the staff have finished their conversation to get some help!

Note staff in the background doing the same.

Mobile phones

Sadly these are now part of our lives and it isn’t going to change. There is nothing which sends out a more negative message than when you pass an exhibit, and there’s a person (usually a man) sitting on a chair or standing on his mobile- talking loudly or texting. No wonder his has no customers as the body language is saying ‘please don’t disturb me as I’m too busy to talk to you’.

If you need a phone on your exhibit, then make sure users goes behind a screen to use it out of sight of the public. They don’t need shout so the whole place can hear.

The human body
Tiredness is such an important issue to be aware of at large events with few places to rest. It can affect your message as the state of peoples’ concentration level (mental energy and blood sugar) when they get to your exhibit can make a big difference about what they take home.

Farmers are early risers so you will get their full concentration from 7am until morning tea when energy drops a bit. After that they go well till lunch (noon till 1pm) then will last them until mid afternoon. After this they get itchy feet and want to get home. In any case, accompanying family will have had a enough and will be tired, often to the point of exhaustion.

This is a high-risk time for your handouts as they can so easily be deemed as junk mail and go into the bin on the way out. Keep whatever you write brief.

'At the end of the day'
Have an honest review to ask:

• Did you achieve your objectives?
• Was your money well spent?
• How do you know?
• You had better find out
• Will you repeat the exercise?
  

Further reading
Read Chapter 6 "Persuasive Displays' in 'Persuasive Ways' by G Moss, available on website www.mossassociates.co.nz

Bill Charlton: Bellingham ladies c 1954

I think the photo was taken in the Bellingham Black Bull around 1954 - and judging by their dress, it was after a fairly formal gathering or meeting, and not a night out! What Adam Dodd was doing as the sole male among them is intriguing. Adam served as a postman in Bellingham for many years along with Billy Beattie.

Photographer:  It would have been nice to know who the photographer was, as he/she certainly knew their job as the group is professionally composed. 

Back Row (L to R): Ellen Daley, Doreen Appleton, Mary Basford, Adam Dodd, Mrs Norman, Kathleen Thompson, Unknown.

Seated (L to R): Violet Robson, Gertie Hardy, Mrs Oliver, Ursula Davidson.

Help! We would like to know who the person is we could not name.

Communicating with farmers – Getting your message across

By Dr Clive Dalton

Clive addresses a crowd of farmers and MAF staff at a Lands & Survey Angus field-day in 1976.

Farmers constantly need new information
To keep farmers and their staff up to date with new developments, good communication is essential by the many technical people, (consultants, farm advisers, sales and advertising people) who have information to impart.

Measuring efficiency
It’s very difficult to measure the efficiency of communication, without testing the recipients to see how much has been learned and acted upon. What many in the information business know, (but rarely admit or measure), is that communication is generally a very inefficient business.

No formal training
Few technical people who have to address farmers, have had any formal training in the craft of communication, and you would be hard pushed to find out where to go to get any. It’s a case of learning on the job – which may include not much ‘learning’. The result is hours of wasted time and money
Rarely do we ask anyone in our audience after a lecture or talk for an honest assessment – and if we do, they give us what we want to hear!

The good and the bad
Most folk looking back on their school, college or University days would be hard pushed to find more than 5% of those who stood in front of their class, as brilliant communicators. This is a frighteningly waste of peoples’ learning time when you think of it.

How few people do you hear say they were ‘switched on’ to a subject by a brilliant teacher, but how many more quote how they were ‘switched off’ a subject by some awful teacher? Maths would have to be top of the pops for this.

Key points if you have to give a talk
There’s a mountain of books on communication – a few readable and helpful, but most full of jargon and theory, and impossible to finish. The books have a major communication problem!

What follows are a few points, gleaned from many sources and from my personal suffering at the hands of others, as well as guilt over what I may have inflicted on others. They are some issues to think about if you have to give a talk, and if you want your audience to learn something.

What’s your aim?
Get this very clear right at the start. When you walk out the door after the talk, think what have you left behind in the minds of your audience? What did you set out to do?

• To inform
• To entertain
• Provide a bit of both - “Infotainment”
• Be memorable – will they remember both you and your message?
• Provide value for money if they have paid!
  

The chance of success
This is a bit scary, but face the truth! It’s old news but is frequently forgotten. So you can see how your effort has to be allocated.

• 7% is WHAT you say
• 33% is HOW you say it
• 60% is the ENERGY you used in saying it
  

Clearly, dull people and a dull talk cannot get a message across, no matter how good it is!

Message retention
This is also very scary. It’s amazing how many people sit through a talk, and think all the information will be in their heads after the talk for ever. It probably is, but it cannot be recalled and with age things get worse.

• You remember only 25% of what you HEAR by the next day.
• By the next week it would be about 5% if you were lucky.
• Adding visual messages increases the retention rate.
• Adding smells will increase it further!
• Success depends on ‘listening skills’ – which we are not taught.
  

So the lesson is that you have to do a really good job with visual aids.

How to get it wrong?
These sins are far too common –but the last person to be aware of them is so often the speaker, and nobody tells them afterwards so nothing changes!

• Too much information – tell them the least your audience needs to know.
• Too little – no meat in the message.
• Wrong place – it was impossible to learn in the environment. The speaker was not aware of how bad the conditions were for the audience.
• Wrong time – nobody could learn at the chosen time of the talk for many reasons.
• Above their heads – no chance of anyone understanding the message.
• Boring – dull enough to make everyone beg for it to end.
• Speaker not aware of the time spent so the meeting over-runs.
• Poor chairman not doing his/her job – eg keeping speaker and programme to time.
• Insulting audience’s intelligence.
• Telling the audience what they already know– so wasting everyone’s time and somebody’s money.
  

How to get it right?

• Wear your client’s shoes (gumboots)!
• Check the venue. Will everyone in your audience be able to see and hear?
• Check the seating – how comfortable are the seats.
• Check visual aid equipment – have spares.
• Check sound equipment – have spares.
• Get a friend to sneak around the venue once you have started speaking to see everything is going OK.
• Watch your audience’s behaviour – bad signs are people sleeping, sitting with head in hands, looking at the ground or the ceiling, fidgeting trying to get comfortable, clock watching, exhaling loudly, gasping for fresh air, talking to person in next seat, and walking out! Many speakers never notice these – believe it or not.
• If the chairman doesn’t get people (who have sat for more than an hour) to stand and stretch, YOU take action and make them stand up. Don’t let them out of the room though!
  

How do we learn as children?
This is a vitally important issue, as so many people seem to think that when we grow up, we can put up with appallingly bad communication that you would never inflict on an innocent child! As mature beings, we learn the same way as kids do! We all crave for a talk that is:

• Interesting
• Relevant
• Clear & simple
• Rewarding
• Entertaining
  

Who is your audience?
This is closely linked to the question of what is your aim. You are lucky if your audience is made up of people with identical interests, but even then, they will vary because of the points shown below. You can’t do much about this, other than be aware and try to modify your message.

• Age
• Sex
• Leading busy lives – so time is precious.
• Interest in the subject
• Educational background
• Social status
• Religious & cultural status
• Tiredness
• Hungry –low blood sugar
• In need of a smoke –agitated
• Comfortable – how long have they sat on hard seats.
  

Profile of a 16-year-old
As a tutor approaching retirement, I was very aware of being horribly out of date when I had to teach young farm trainees straight from school who were from generation X and Y.

Now we are on to generation Z which are very different again. They need more guidance but they certainly know their rights. But I was amazed how few folk I talked to in the farming industry (especially employers who didn’t have teenagers), had thought about these issues. They judged 16-year-olds by what they remember of their youth.

• Two thirds are from split homes. (Ten years ago this was one third).
• They come from class sizes at school of at least 30.
• Their concentration span is very short - max of 3-5 minutes – the time between TV ads. It used to be 5-7 minutes.
• Low discipline levels in schools. Class disruption is normal.
• Students want to talk continuously – they have been taught in groups and encouraged to talk so they don’t see a problem.
• At school, they have been encouraged to work in groups which is good. However, sitting listening for periods of more than a few minutes is very hard for them, so they miss vital information only told to them once.
• They can learn among noise, which in today’s world is also very good.
• The love loud throbbing music – especially inside a vehicle or restricted space.
• Teachers have had little time to help anyone with individual learning problems. Disruptive students get attention (that’s why they are disruptive), but quiet non-achievers in class can easily pass through the system having learned very little.
• Many have a negative attitude to formal learning which is not their fault.
• Little or no encouragement received from home for academic learning –in fact there could have been positive discouragement.
• A large proportion will have no NCEA subjects due to lack of motivation and boredom.
• Boredom is the main disease of high schools. The school system had betrayed them!
• Many will have one or two NCEA subjects - generally not in academic subjects. Some may have done sixth form but not got any qualifications.
• They are active people who like practical subjects.
• At least twenty percent of them will smoke –and few will want to stop.
• About 3% will have serious learning problems (ADD), and won’t be able to concentrate. They stop their class mates learning.
• They all know about drugs and have seen them in primary school.
• A very high percentage will have used them by secondary school and will be very knowledgeable.
• So drugs in the workplace are now a normal part of the daily environment.
• Poor literacy - many have reading age of 8-10 years or worse.
• Maths ability is good with money, but they cannot do any sum without a calculator, even divide 1000 by 10. Mental arithmetic is beyond them – they are just not taught it.
• They have fantastic finger dexterity, keyboard, computer and mobile phone skills. They can text without looking at their keyboard and while their phone is hidden in their pocket.
• They walk around with a phone permanently in their hand, texting and checking for incoming texts with one hand. The other is for work!
• Ninety percent are males with strong male stereotypes and attitudes to hygiene and pain.
• Ten to twenty percent will have already had a driving conviction.
• Twenty percent will be driving cars with no WOF or insurance.
• Five percent will have hearing impairment from loud music.
• They are growing rapidly and are always hungry.
• They are high on testosterone and oestrogens.
• Most will be sexually active - or they’ll tell you that they are!
• Few are capable of a hard day’s physical work that a grown up can handle.
  

What makes communication difficult?
The theory talks about a ‘message’ which is ‘coded’ by a ‘sender’. This then goes to a ‘receiver’ who ‘decodes’ it. The three things that ruin this process are:

1. Competition for your message from other messages.
2. Bad coding by the sender and bad decoding by the receiver.
3. Information overload at both ends.
   

Competition for the message is a major hazard. We ask why folk who came to our talk have done nothing about the message they took away so enthusiastically? The answer is simple - when they got home, there was at least 5 new issues that had blown up which needed urgent fixing. After that, they’ll have difficulty remembering when they attended your talk, what your message was and even your name. Ask some university students to give the full names all that lecture to them. The answer in communication terms is scary.

So you can see the value of a ‘take-home’ message that doesn’t look like junk mail and that they’ll keep (or their partner will keep) and not file in the bin.

Prioritise your message
This is very important as it stops your wasting your time, and more importantly, their time. Sort out what are your audience’s wants and needs (they may be very different).
Get this order of priority right. If time is short, cut number 3.

1. Must know?
2. Should know?
3. Nice to know?
4. Questions and discussion
   

Never, ever, cut out number 4! That should be THE highlight of your talk. If you are running out of time, cut out number 3 and go straight to 4.

The brain plays tricks
Speakers who make you ‘suffer’ their presentation regularly forget these basic points.

• Our concentration spans are short – and getting shorter thanks to TV advertising.
• The brain can cope with many issues at the same time, so our thoughts wander all over the place if what we are hearing is boring or deemed by our brains to be unimportant.
• The brain works mega times faster than speaker can speak, or read words to us from a slide - which so many insist on doing.
• The brain filters out things that it may consider unimportant.
• The brain is lazy and smart (both at the same time) so it looks for the easy path.
• It’s always interesting and a bit alarming when you ask someone who has been to a talk or presentation what they learned. Most will be struggling to give you a detailed account – but they’ll all add it was a good meeting.
  

Our brains differ – 7 intelligences
This too is well known and is a major reason for so many folk failing. We have different kinds of brains, and sadly for some, their’s cannot be accommodated in a teaching regime. The only hope is for individuals to do more themselves to cope, as teachers have enough problems!

Be aware of this as a learning strategy for yourself, and recognise it when you need to teach. From the list, find out which one(s) you are, and try to recognise what some other folk may be, especially those you have to communicate with.

• Mathematical
• Musical
• Physical
• Visual
• Linguistic
• Intra personal
• Extra personal
  

A very sad tale
I had a 16-year-old farming student who could not pass one written test of the simplest questions – even on the third repeat. In fact, the more repeats he got, the worse he got. Yet on a bus trip of well over an hour, he sang the complete works of the Australian bush balladeer ‘Kevin Bloody Wilson’. His mates assured me he was word perfect! The lad had a musical brain, which I could not handle, as I couldn’t put my lectures to music with three expletives in every line. Sad to say, he was killed in a railway crossing accident when the train hit his tractor.

Six stages of learning
The books tell you this is the way to learn things. It’s also useful to know when you are teaching so that you can make the learning by your listeners easier if they need to remember things. You do things in the following order:

1. Get set
2. Get information
3. Explore
4. Memorise
5. Show-U- Know
6. Reflect
   

The major problem I found when teaching farming students (16-17-year olds) who had hated school, was that they had never been taught to learn. So they sat during class with arms folded, listening, enjoying the discussion, but assuming that they’d remember all they heard. They didn’t realise that for most of us, learning needs some kind of effort.

I had to make them write some things down and draw diagrams – to do something physical, as they had not learned (or not been taught these skills). The would ask me 'have we got to write this down'?

 As a result, they had nothing to use for 'revision' which they had never ever been shown how to do, and hence failed in any written tests. These students had fantastic practical skills, so their school record showing low achievement was so wrong! The education system had failed them.

Mind maps
I gave up on talking and expecting them to 'make notes'.  At University with many lecturers that's all you did - try to write down everything they said hoping that it would make sense when you re-read them. It rarely did!

Mind maps like the example above were my salvation and the students' too. You can see from the above example that we discussed everything that had to be done to prepare for calving.  We both learned so much from sharing information and experience – without the chore of them having to write many words down. It kept all our brains active, and by turning words into a picture, it was had high recall, which I proved by asking them to draw a mind map to answer questions in exams.

I used to hand out large A3 sheets so that they could keep the finished map to bring out in future years to work on with their staff before calving.  Different jobs could be allocated to different people and nothing slipped through the cracks.

These same students would struggle to write 50–100 words as an answer, but could  fill a whole A4 sheet with detailed information as they had very good recall. Communication had worked. 

For more information on mind maps - Google <‘mind maps Tony Buzan’>

Written words and spoken words
These are so different in terms of communication efficiency. Apparently with texting and emailing, more words are being written today than at any other time in history. But they are very different words to those used by anyone who sets out to write a handout, or god-save us, a manual!

You have to stop yourself writing ‘hard to read’ English in anything you give to a modern audience. Your only chance of getting anything ‘browsed’ is to write it in ‘spoken’ English or journalistic style.

• You need to become a good browser and the trick is to only read the first sentence of each paragraph. Here are some interesting points that have been around for a while.Humans communicate best with sound.
• Most visual image fades in 1 second – unless they are spectacular or shocking.
• Sound memories fade in 4-5 seconds – again unless they are spectacular of shocking.
• Voice tone gives “emotional impact” that no picture can do.
• In journalism we strive for “colour” in our written words to try and imitate the spoken word.
• Monotone is a killer – if the voice is dull, then our brains assume the speaker and the subject is dull too.
• Ums, Ahs, Eh’s, You-knows, etc can kill listener concentration – listen to yourself on a tape, or view yourself (in private) on video. The shock can be overwhelming!
  

The handout
Handouts used to be considered important for the take-home message, but we know that most of them end up as junk mail, as there’s so much other material around of very high quality. So class handouts as a ‘nice’ idea but don’t rely on them being effective after your talk.

A good idea is to hand them out during the session, so keen folk who are trying to take notes can just highlight key parts as you go through.

The take-home CD, video or DVD
This is the latest idea, but again how many folk have time to sit and watch them – even if they know how to work the player! There used to be a figure when video recorders came out that at most, only 9% of recorded videos were ever watched. Thing won’t have changed.

The ‘slide’
Once upon a time we had projectors and 35mm slides. These were made from the colour pictures we took, but we also made stencilled words into 35 mm slides.

Then came the Overhead Projector (OHP) with a pack of multi-coloured pens, all of which we used, even if some like the brown and yellow could not be seen!

Then came the laptop computer and the digital projector with 'Microsoft Power Point'.  This is my view is death to communication!

The technology is not to blame for poor communication – it’s the way it’s been used which is the problem. What has happened, and is still going on because it’s easier with computer software, is that speakers are still producing ‘slides’ and abusing them rather than using them in their talks. Here’s what happens:

• The slide has too much information. The rule is to have a maximum of five lines and five words per line.
• The speaker reads the words on the slide out aloud to the audience – who can also read – and a hundred times faster than the speaker can read.
• The speaker is simply using the slide as a memory jogger. This is now a worse problem as Power Point makes the production of slide so easy. People are typing out their talk in Power Point which we then have to endure.
• Power Point also allows you to use fancy gimmicks, which fortunately many folk have not learned to use yet! Others go crazy with them which distracts from the message.
• These slides go on forever and the meeting over runs, so there’s no time for discussion or questions. How often has the last speaker been asked to cut down their time because the chairman has failed in his/her duty!
• Speakers should NEVER be allowed to over-run by chairmen.
  

Back to the board – why not?
Consider going back to basics. There was nothing wrong with the old blackboard (apart from chalk dust and finger nail scratchings), and the whiteboard (apart from pens that don’t work and permanent markers) provided that, it was in the hands of a skilled operator.

The big advantages are:

• When you use a whiteboard really well, you cannot help being active. It’s hard for people to fall asleep or their minds wander off, when the speaker is leaping around and you are watching for the words or pictures to emerge.
• You are actively combining words (from your mouth) with pictures (from your pen).
• Rubbing out words provides action in anticipation for new ones, and gives a sense of progress through your talk.
• It’s a good idea to write a sort of ‘menu’ for the talk down the side of the board before you start, and wipe bits off when finished. It makes the audience feel they are progressing towards the end – always an attractive destination in a talk.
  

Points for success

• Double check the pens – always keep plenty of new ones and don’t lend them to anyone.
• Check the caps have been tight, and get into the habit of always putting the cap back on while speaking.
• Avoid green, and only use red for emphasis.
• Check no ‘smartass’ has slipped a permanent marker into the set of pens. If you need to remove it, go over it with a proper whiteboard pen and rub the lines off straight away.
• Make sure there is a cleaning cloth or duster.
• Don’t stand in the one position all the time, as some in the audience may not be able to see. Check this out before and during your talk and make people move (nicely) if you find it easier to operate from one spot to avoid blocking their view.
• Use mind map (see above).
• The brain likes colour too – but don’t overdo it. Use colour to underline and highlight key words in your mind map.
  

Final thoughts
All you have is this – in any order:

• Be simple
• Be clear
• Be brief
• Be entertaining & be memorable
  

Fast track to improvement
If you want to improve your presentations real fast - just arrange to have your talk videoed. But view it in private first, as you can be devastated with the result. You will see things that you cannot believe you did!

At the end - for goodness sake END!
Some folk find ending very hard - they seems to get a pain when they have to sum up- so keep on to avoid it. Don't be fooled (if you are chairman) by  words like ‘finally’, or ‘to summarise’ or ‘to sum up’ which lifts the listeners’ heart, and then the speaker’s brain seems to find another thread.

The trick I find that works every time is the chairman - to dive in when they are drawing breath between sentences and say in a really loud voice over the microphone - 'And FINALLY'! They are so shocked, and the audiences laughter so spontaneous,  that they say - 'Well I'll stop there Mr Chairman"!

Yorkshire advice
Yorkshire folk are noted for their thrift with money, time and words. They have this advice for public speakers which is well worth remembering:
1. Stand up
2. Speak up
3. Then SHUT UP!

Agricultural communication: Stimulating agriculture - Lessons from Asia and the Pacific

Background to paper
By Dr D.C. Dalton

Geoff Moss wrote this paper 20 years ago, and the world financial meltdown, and the misguided drive to grow crops for engines and not mouths has again brought the problem into sharp focus. Geoff’s wisdom, agricultural experience and common sense on this massive topic is worth another airing, as it applies to the whole world now and not just developing countries. New Zealand’s expertise has a lot to offer in facing this challenge.

Stimulating agriculture - Lessons from Asia and the Pacific
By Geoffrey Moss
Occasional Papers in Rural Extension No. 7, 1989
Department of Rural Extension Studies, University of Guelph. Ontario, Canada

Extracts from a document produced in the Communication Technology Laboratory, a facility of the Department of Rural Extension Studies at the University of Guelph. Contact Geoffrey Moss at moss@xtra.co.nz for the complete paper, and take a look at his Moss Associates website here.

HELPING THE FARMER
Stimulating agricultural production in a developing country is a complex operation. Goals and objectives must be set, resources allocated, aspirations understood and governments, farming organizations and extension workers motivated to achieve those goals. Communication systems, extension services, research, training and marketing are only parts of the jigsaw puzzle. In my experience, here is what three elements in this system can achieve:



The Government can:

• Set clear, realistic national goals.
• Supply sound leadership.
• Set up effective two-way communication systems.
• Build up systems to facilitate increased production (transport, marketing, processing, education).
• Involve agro-industry in planning.
• Reorganize and streamline government departments.
• Co-ordinate the activities of all government departments involved in agriculture.
• Re-allocate resources from less productive departments into agriculture.
• Legislate for increased production.
• Minimize restrictive practices.
• Overcome disincentives to increased population.
• Promote land development and land settlement schemes.
• Improve land surveying and ownership legislation.
• Develop storage and marketing facilities.
• Upgrade research and educational institutions.
• Establish "think tanks", comprising planners and innovative experts.
• Call in overseas consultants and trainers.
• Send staff overseas to train and look for new ideas and markets.
• Borrow money to help finance some of these measures.
  

Marketing organizations can:

• Seek top prices for the farmer.
• Develop new and better markets.
• Process, package, and store produce to meet criteria of the market.
• Research and develop new products.
• Carry out an extension role.
• Bulk purchase the best available seed, fertilizer and pesticides and supply them to the farmer at the lowest possible price.
• Provide sound advice, adequate credit facilities, efficient services, and long term contracts.
• Provide the farmer with best available breeding material.
• Act as an effective link between the farmer and the marketplace.
• Co-ordinate the supply of seasonal requirements, production and transport.
  

Extension workers can:

• Encourage and support farmers and help them reach their personal objectives and aspirations.
• Get messages directly to farmers.
• Diagnose problems and call upon expert help when necessary.
• Carry out field trials and demonstrate results.
• Introduce new plant varieties and new management techniques.
• Set up learning situations (field days, seminars, farmer schools).
• Co-ordinate commercial and government agencies.
• Arrange availability and distribution or resources, if necessary (seasonal finance, quality seeds, fertilizers, pesticides).
• Advise commercial and government agencies.
• Assist in marketing.
• Organize farmer groups to share experiences.
• Organize young farmers' groups to educate, develop and train rural youth.
• Train other extension workers, teachers and rural leaders.
• Encourage vegetable and small animal production.
• Support rural life development.
• Encourage good home management skills (health, child care, nutrition, cooking, family planning).
  

Why is agricultural extension not as effective as it should be? 


These are typical replies given by experienced people in the business:

• Too much political interference.
• Too many other jobs to do.
• Too many supervisors.
• Too many reports.
• No clear job specification.
• No detailed work schedule.
• Unrealistic goals and objectives.
• Inadequate transport.
• Insufficient in-service training.
• No effective links with research.
• Low status, morale, and pay.
• Duplication of services by rival departments.
• Lack of strong leadership.
• Insufficient technical information and support services.
  

Solutions to improve extension services
Replies from people involved in the business were:

• Improve incentives and working conditions for extension workers.
• Tell us what we should be doing and let us get on with our job.
• Establish a resource bank of technical information and research findings for use by extension staff.
• Current research recommendations should be made available rapidly to field staff in simple newsletters prepared by specialists.
• District staff should organize regular training sessions in practical husbandry and extension methods.
• Training centres with demonstrations and trial plots should be equipped to train farmers.
• Field days should be conducted regularly every season.
• Specialists and head office staff should visit districts more frequently.
  

TACTICS FOR CHANGE
A five Point Plan: 

The following simple five-point plan sets out some priority areas in which, in my opinion, a great deal of work is still required in many developing countries.

• Train trainers so that their skills will be multiplied and passed on to increasing numbers of extension workers and farmers.
• Increase the ratio of women extension workers to help increase food production and improve the quality of family life.
• Develop information and training support services to make staff more effective in their job.
• Examine research priorities and ensure research results are being used effectively.
• Upgrade management systems. Train managers in effective supervision and management skills. Involve staff in planning and restructuring their organizations.
  

IN SUMMARY

• Agricultural extension faces immense challenges in the developing countries of Asia and the Pacific.
• No two countries are the same and methods, which have been successful in one country, cannot easily be transferred to another.
• International planners and extension workers should not lay down hard and fast rules; they must be flexible in their ideas and be prepared to alter their plans when necessary.
• One should avoid making harsh comparisons between one country and another but rather try to stand back and get things in perspective. If one is from an industrialized country, it is salutary to try to think back to the time when your country was at a similar stage in development.
• Countries are all at different stages of evolution and their goals may be very different. Is the country aiming for self-sufficiency or is it aiming at growing large surpluses of food for export earnings?
• In too many countries a large part of the budget is allocated for military expenditure and this drain on resources limits the amount available for research and development efforts to increase food production. In all cases the extension worker plays a vital role.
• I am convinced there must be more training in supervision and management skills for those in positions of authority in extension services.
• At the same time, workers in the field must be well trained initially and then supported with reliable information and good aids and equipment.
• Resources should be available for refresher courses in new methods and techniques and to share field experiences.
• I must re-emphasize the training and the support for those already in the service to help the millions of women engaged in food production - the "invisible farmers" of Asia and the Pacific.
  

REFERENCES

• Expert Consultation on the Establishment of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) (1985). Bangkok: F.A.O. Regional Office of Asia and the Pacific.
• Khan, Salma,(1984). Paper Prepared for Lecture Series One, Centre for Women and Development. Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Moss. G.R., (1979). Improving Agricultural Communications in Sir Lanka, Rome, F.A.O.
• Moss, G.R., (1986). Sound Investment Areas for Non-technical Agricultural Research in Asia. Paper presented to the Technical Advisory Committee of the Food and Fertilizer Technology Centre for Asia and the Pacific Region, Taipei.
• Moss, G.R., (1986). Stimulating Agriculture: A Manual for Training Agricultural Extension Workers. Bangkok: U.N.D.P. Asia and Pacific Programme for Development Training and Communication Planning in Asia and the Pacific.
• Moss, G.R., (1987). Workbook for Stimulating Agriculture. Wellington, New Zealand: Moss Associates Limited.
• Moss, G.R., (1987). Transferring Agricultural Technology: Guidelines for Agricultural Extension Planners. Paper presented at Agricultural Extension Seminar, Highlands Agricultural College, Papua New Guinea.
• Moss, G.R., (1988). Trainers' Handbook. Singapore: Institute of Management.
• National Agricultural Research. (1984). Rome: F.A.O.
• Proceeding of the Commonwealth Association of Scientific Agricultural Societies (CASAS) South Pacific Regional Seminar, (1981). Self Sufficiency in Food Production in the Pacific: Opportunities and Constraints. Lautoka, Fiji.
• Schultz, T.W. (1979). The Economics of Research and Agricultural Productivity. Paper presented at the Seminar on Socio-Economic Aspects of Agricultural Research in Developing Countries, Santiago, Chile.
• World Bank, (1981). Agricultural Sector Policy Paper. Washington.
  

Bibliography of NZ Sheep Research 1932 - 1976

Links

1. Knol of Clive Dalton's NZ Sheep Research Bibliography listing Authors A-M
2. Knol of Clive Dalton's NZ Sheep Research Bibliography listing Authors N-Z

The beginnings of Online search in the 1970s

In the late 1970s, librarians at the Ruakura Agricultural Research Centre, Hamilton, got excited about a new development called ‘on-line searching’. From a tiny narrow store room in the library, the librarian (we were not allowed near the key board) would type into a teleprinter, the key words we gave her to search references on the subject. We were amazed at the speed – the printout would appear in our mailbox as fast as the next day!

We scientists thought this was incredible, but there was a problem - regularly our own names and published research didn’t appear on the list. This was a major concern, not just for sheep research science but for our egos! So the obvious question was what was in this marvelous database somewhere in cyberspace, and how far back did it go?

Knowing the amount of sheep work that had come out of Ruakura Research Centre, and the Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station alone, it was clear that the old material had not been picked up, so current researchers around the world would not know where it was, and then there was the bigger problem that future sheep researchers would assume it didn’t exist.

This sadly has proved to be true, and I regularly see research being repeated by young scientists who clearly have not found the old work. Google didn’t find it so it cannot have existed! But the situation has got worse, because libraries have actively done away with books and Journals on shelves. They have become ‘information hubs’, and are all concerned about ‘intellectual property’.

I now for example cannot access to the Ruakura library without going through a security check and unless I pay!

Let’s not blame the system

But let’s not blame the system, as a massive amount of important sheep research done in New Zealand never saw the light of day. It was never formally published to appear in major peer reviewed scientific journals which then should have been picked up. It was far easier for us scientists in a hurry to report research to farmers directly, as they were wanted to know to put the results into practice.

We had some great farmers’ journals and agricultural journalists to do just that. Full peer-reviewed journal publication was an agony, going through the hoops of writing, colleagues’ criticism, usually rewriting bits and regularly redoing statistical analysis.

Then came submission to the Journal’s Editorial Committee, who always had their two pennyworth which often meant going around, or half around the loop again. I regularly formed the opinion that the senior scientists on a research station who your work had to pass, got worse with age, and seemed to want to stop anything going out of the establishment, unless it had their name on it!

Then as we scientists aged, we got less keen to do battle with external Editorial Committees (with members from other research institutions), so Manila folders of data got put into filing cabinets, waiting for some younger scientist to come along, hungry for publications to get up the salary ladder, and who would do all the work and put our name on the finished paper! Sadly it often didn’t happen.

A long-hand search

When a ‘Scientific Liaison Officer’ at the Ruakura Research Centre, I thought I’d go through all the journals and books on the shelves in the extensive library, as well as all our other publications, from Ruakura, Massey and Lincoln when they were colleges - long before becoming Universities.

I hand wrote the references on cards and bits of paper, and filed them in a box in the Ruakura library where they sat for some years. I showed the material to Dr Alan Royal when he was at the NZ Meat Board heading the R&D Council, and he kindly got his secretary to typed them all up for me. She deserves a medal for her very accurate typing of my handwriting, and my sincere thanks. So now at least the material is ‘captured’ and available.
What is included in these bibliographies?

I have listed all papers and articles from New Zealand publications referring to ‘sheep’, and then all papers in other journals that reported research on ‘New Zealand sheep’. Against each reference I have given it a classification.

Classifications:

1. General production & history
2. Management
3. Anatomy & Physiology
4. Health & disease
5. Behaviour
6. Reproduction
7. Growth & teeth
8. Nutrition & feeding
9. Lactation
10. Breeding & genetics
11. Meat & carcass composition
12. Wool & skins
13. Economics & marketing

50 years of artificial insemination and herd improvement in New Zealand.

By Clive Dalton & Claire Rumble.

Now a new Google knol - click here to read online.
Originally published by the Auckland Livestock Improvement Association, Private Bag, Hamilton.
ISBN 0-473-00294-9
April 1985

The cover of the book shows Moria Toomath (daughter of the late A.S. Wiley) of the Puhinui Jersey stud on her Koranui farm with a bull calf born in August 1984. Moira named the calf 'Puhinui King James' and he is rather special, because there are eight generations of AI breeding in his pedigree. His ancestry traces back to a foundation cow bought by Sydney Wiley in 1940. The Puhinui stud has been firmly based on AI breeding for 40 years.

Introduction (2009)

By Dr Clive Dalton

In musing over how things have changed in New Zealand dairying over the last 20 years, and the contribution genetics have made to this, I dug out the small book which Claire Rumble and I wrote in 1985 to commemorate “50 years of Artificial Insemination and Herd Improvement in New Zealand”.

At the time, Claire and I were employed by the NZ Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries. I was a Scientific Liaison Officer at the Ruakura Research Centre (where folk had forgotten AI in New Zealand had started), and Clare was Technical Editor in our MAF Wellington Head Office. We thought it an interesting and important story then that should be recorded for posterity, and nobody else was going to do anything about it.

Claire and I got in contact again in 2009, and after all these years we thought that in these internet days, the material should be made accessible to anyone interested in New Zealand’s agricultural history and especially in dairy cattle breeding.

We can’t remember how many books were printed, but it was not a lot due to Jack Burton’s very small ‘slush fund’! It was not sold, but copies were given away to anyone LIA thought would be interested. It’s amusing now that many people can remember the publication, but few can find their copy. The book rarely turns up in second-hand bookshops.

The words have not been edited or updated. Sad to say, most of the people mentioned in the story have now passed on.

What’s the story about?
Tokoroa dairy farmer, and lifelong servant to the dairy industry, Dudley Lane summed the book up in his foreword.

“The book highlights the initiative and dedication of the scientists, technicians, administrators and farmers who pioneered the introduction of artificial insemination of dairy cattle in New Zealand.”

It’s really a bit of a detective story with the New Zealand dairy cow playing the lead role. New Zealand’s cow population was building up in the early 1900s and somebody must have decided to officially record their milk yield. Obviously farmers wanted to know which were their best cows, so they could breed replacements from them.

The first problem was how to handle all the data collected and from it sort out which were the best cows. It was the dawn of the science of statistics never mind genetics.

But then as the bull was the key to herd improvement, finding the top bulls was the key, and then they hit the wall over how to get more offspring from a bull.

Two popular sires in 1981

The Friesian (right) had more than 150,000 inseminations, and the Jersey more than 125,000.

The pedigree breeders held all the power and the sale of their bulls was the key to genetic improvement. Then the urge to speed up herd improvement made farmers start wondering if this new (and to many very dodgy) process called Artificial Insemination could be of use to get more from their bulls. This is the core of the tale.

AI or AB
This was a serious debate about which term to use, and you have to laugh about it now. New Zealand started with the term AI (Artificial Insemination), were diverted by the UK Milk Marketing Board to call it AB (Artificial Breeding), and then UK changed back to AI and left New Zealand in the lurch with a term that now is only use in NZ and Australia!

History of Herd Improvement
Dairy farming in New Zealand has always been a cooperative business, so this chapter is very important to understand the organisations that had to be set up – and made to work – to get anything going. Electricity was just being introduced to farms, milking machines were coming on stream, and pencil and paper was the means of recording everything. The introduction of the Burroughs ‘adding machines’ by Arthur Ward (a former accountant) for processing cow records was a revolution!

It was the dawn of statistical analysis – and Arthur had to lead the industry into this age. He persuaded Olive Castle to leave her maths teaching job in Wellington and join him. She should have been honoured for her contribution to the dairy industry but never was. Progeny testing, Sire Surveys and Contemporary Comparisons were developed by Olive and were copied world wide. It was a great example of the Kiwi way – of getting science into the paddock.

First steps to AI
Looking back now, this part of the story is mind blowing and you have to wonder if it could be done today with all the bureaucracy. The “NZ Co-op Herd Testing Assoc”, asked the Director General of Agriculture to get on and develop an AI service. Nice and simple – “get on with the job" mate!

The original AI laboratory at Newstead in 1952. The cars (from L to R) are Stan Southcombe's A40, Max Cooper's Morris Minor, and Sel Sheaf's A 90.

Remember what things were like. Rough roads, Model T and Austin cars, no electricity on farms, no idea of how to get semen from a bull on a farm (a pickle jar was used!) and then keeping the semen in a test tube in Tom Blake’s waistcoat pocket till he got to a cow on another farm to insert it into the vagina. The story and what the folk charged with getting the show on the road is amazing looked at from today’s systems.

Back to the beginning
This chapter is about an amazing man – Dr John James, a UK trained vet who came to New Zealand to do research on mastitis at Wallaceville. He sort of got diverted to Ruakura and the rest is history! It’s an amazing bit of history too – of what he achieved, like the invention of the straw to hold semen and the stainless steel insemination gun – 40 years before its time! The only gun left is in an AI museum in Russia!

Dr John James - the driving force behind getting AI working in NZ

Dr James led the research along a difficult and winding path of working out how to preserve sperm, dilute it to get more cows mated from one ejaculate, with the enormous challenge that only New Zealand has – to get all the cows mated over a period of 6 weeks in spring.

John James is generous in his recognition of all the staff at Ruakura and then at Newstead who helped to get the job done.

Semen for sale
One day, which must have been momentous, semen was offered for sale to commercial farmers with a very reasonable guarantee of success. Imagine the responsibility on the heads of all those involved, because if the cow didn’t get in calf, the farmer’s income next year was severely affected by the three-week delay in calving.

Then of course, once the novelty of the technique was accepted, farmers expected that they would be getting the very top bulls in the country, and that each year’s models would be better than last year’s. The pressure went on pedigree breeders which up to now were assumed to have the best stock. This assumption was now being questioned!

How to organise this distribution of semen took some very special people, and they didn’t fail to deliver. However one idea somebody had ‘failed to fly’. It was to send semen from Hamilton to Massey by carrier pigeon – which was in theory faster than the train! A saddler was commissioned to make the leather pouches needed.

AI goes to Northland
Apparently the dairy farmers in Northland had the clear impression that nobody cared much about them, so they got organised and were going to set up their own organisation. They went a fair way along the road and three wonderful stirrers who lived into their 90s made the Dairy Board see their point of view and provide an AI service.

AI made such an impact in Northland that the local management committee got a letter from a ‘Miss” requesting semen, saying she had never married but wished to have a family – ‘preferring Scottish and definitely not Irish blood’. She was available for interview any time. The meeting exploded with members clamouring for more details.

Technicians and training
The star of this chapter, and many would say of AI in New Zealand is Max Cooper (photographed in action below). Max was raised on a Hamilton farm, now with the city at its doorstep and had seen cows being inseminated on the family farm and thought it would an interesting job.

Over a very long career with the NZ Dairy Board, he led the charge of getting AI to work on farms, and to keep getting better results. He became a major trainer around the world. He was always the star turn at the annual Ruakura Open Days when buses taking farmers around the farm always ended at Newstead where Max had a bull primed ready to mount to deliver some future genetics for the industry.


Max told some great stories – all true! He was once accosted by a very nice lady who said she’d pay his wages if he stopped the ‘dirty pracice’ he was involved in. He tried in vain to explain it was a bull’s semen he was using on the cow. Many farmers always let the bull serve the cow before and after insemination and one farmer told Max that at the climax of mating, an electric pulse passed from bull to cow.

Forward into the fifties
The hero of this chapter is Pat Shannon (pictured). The progress which Pat and his colleagues brought about in the 1950s is an applied science classic. Pat is the first to acknowledge the help they got from “serendipity”!

The secret was in the dilution process as when they started they could get 10,000 inseminations from one ejaculate provided it was used within the first and at most the second day after collection. Their work (in 1956) got 150,000 inseminations from an ejaculate – and with massive advantages in keeping quality.

Taking the message to the farmer
This chapter pays tribute to the pioneering farmers whose supported the system set up to revolutionise dairy herd improvement. Herds were increasing slowly in size, the demand for proven bulls was increasing, the market for unproven ‘pedigree’ bulls had collapsed, and their was a storm of ‘plain speaking’ from pioneers like Dr C.P. McMeekan at Ruakura and Alan Candy.

These pioneers formed the NZ Society of Animal Production and the Dairy Board set up the Consultancy Officers’ Service. Things were really on the move. Jeff Stichbury of the Dairy Board drove the consultants, and relished the challenge of getting out in his Austin A40 to confront farmers the length of the land.

Which bulls to use?
This chapter is about the devopment of the ‘Sire Proving Scheme’ which had, and has continued to be the very core of dairy cattle improvement. It’s all about finding the best bulls which are then used as “Premier Sires”.

The process then developed to find the best cows from the extensive database of cow records (one of the biggest in the world) to be the mothers of future Premier Sires. Farmers put these cows up on contracts so any bull calves born were put back into the system to be progeny tested. This process has not changed – its only got bigger and better over the years.

Consolidation in the sixties
This bit of the story is about research to improve the extenders to keep semen viable for longer and the technology of deep freezing was racing ahead.

There’s a lovely (true) story of a farmer who was told to keep some semen in the FRIDGE. In those days semen was kept in glass ampules before plastic straws were invented. By mistake he put it in the FREEZER! It was duly thawed and the cow inseminated to produce a nice calf nine months later. He could claim to have pioneered the process!

The Eighties
By 1984, 70% of New Zealand dairy herds were using AI, and to most farmers, they’d never used anything else, so to them there was nothing ‘artificial’ involved. The story in this chapter is mainly about the administration changes that set things in place for the next two decades. Jeff Stichbury reckoned that the AI service and everything that went with it on herd improvement had produced 25kg of milkfat per cow per year more than would have been the case if the old ways had remained.

Records staff of Auckland Livestock Improvement Association in 1984.

Note: very few computers on desks!

Biographies
The book has biographies of Tommy Blake (1882-1966), Dr John James, Paul Kneebone and Stan Southcombe.

Table of events in date order
This is a very useful time line of events from 1909 (the start of Herd Testing) to 1984 (the formation of the NZ Dairy Board Livestock Improvement Council).

DEVELOPMENTS SINCE 1985?

Clive Dalton interviewed Dr Pat Shannon in April 2009 about developments since the book was published in 1985. Here are the points he made:

Pat Shannon aged 81 and still working two days a week at LIC

where he has been employed contributing to the dairy industry for 50 years.

Pat died age 90 on May 4 2016

• The number of inseminations from an average bull's ejaculate has risen from 150,000 to 300,000.
• The life of fresh semen in the field has increased from two days to four days.
• The number of sperm in a straw of frozen semen has dropped from a minimum of 15 million to 10 million.
• Semen carried by field technicians changed from test tubes to plastic straws in the 1990s.
• Advances in computers have allowed more traits to be included in selection indexes.
• Research into 'genetic markers' has allowed the time taken to prove a bull to drop from five years to one year.
• Staff now have desk top computers linked to the Internet, instead of being linked to the main LIC computer.
• Farmers can send and receive their data to LIC via their home computer and the Internet.