Green light for new Taratahi farm

Gerald Ford
Taratahi is to buy a new 500ha farm for its students, Agriculture minister David Carter announced yesterday at the training centre's graduation ceremony.
Mr Carter, speaking to this year's graduating students, said approving the purchase of Mangarata a 518ha sheep and beef unit north of Masterton was one of his first tasks as minister.
Mangarata will replace the east coast property of Glenburn as the centre's on-farm training environment.
Under the Taratahi Agriculture Training Centre Act 1969, the Agriculture Minister must approve any property decisions made by the centre board.
Mr Carter farms in Canterbury and was a pioneer in bringing cattle embryo transplants, and new breeds such as Simmental, to New Zealand.
Farming is a great career, Mr Carter said, and "pay rates have improved markedly over the past 10 years".
But Mr Carter said he is "really concerned that young New Zealanders are not seeing the attractiveness of this career".
Mr Carter said he chose "the scholastic path" to farming, but this was not the only way and coming out of places like Taratahi "qualified and job-ready" was also a good option.
"The days when you went away and returned, and then did what Dad did, went decades ago."
Noting that nearly 50 per cent of Taratahi graduates are female, Mr Carter said, "I never had that sort of luck when I went to Lincoln."
Taratahi's lease on historic Glenburn is set to expire in 2010, and the board and new chief executive Donovan Wearing have needed to make arrangements for students to have a farm on which to learn. As well as a training environment, the farm is also run as a commercial enterprise.
Board chairman Jim Law said "this class of "08 know what a Wairarapa drought is like and how to survive."
"That's the sort of experience a place like Taratahi can offer."
Taratahi was established in 1919 as a training farm for soldiers returning from World War One. It continued training during the wars and was again made available to Returned Servicemen after World War Two.
In 1951, Taratahi Trustees decided to carry out extensive improvements and enlarged the activities of the farm to provide training for young people aged between 16 and 20 years old.
Initially known as the Wairarapa Cadet Training Farm, the college changed its name in the early 1980s to Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, which remains today.