The Rural Voice, 1983-07, Page 15and the classroom, well let's face it, your
brain slacks off a bit."
Doreen, who's been farming now for
four years, says "I can't believe how fast
the time has gone."
For over a year of that period, Doreen
was on her memorable farm exchange
program. In Victoria, Australia, she
worked on a 2,000 -acre dairy farm,
mainly with crops and machinery
because the milking was all done by
contract milkers. She found the attitude
of Australians, both to farming and life in
general, was "more laid back" than here.
After her Australian job ended, she
visited such exotic locales as Thailand,
Singapore, Fiji and Hawaii.
After a quick, ten-day visit home,
Doreen was off again for a six month
stint working on a 300 -acre Danish dairy
farm. Here she helped milk 35 cows
using a pipeline milking system and
stools on springs that farmers tie to their
waists for easy handling. Doreen, who
still corresponds with a variety of friends
she made on the exchange, adds that at
the same time, "I learned to appreciate
the home and family since I went away."
Since returning from the exchange,
she's become even more involved in local
Junior Farmers' activities and the night
before her interview, was first runner-up
for the Miss Perth County Junior
Farmers' title.
The only career change Doreen has
ever been tempted to make was to work
as a DHIA inspector. But after comparing
that lifestyle with her own, she says
simply, "I'm content here."
While all three graduates felt CCAT
played a very important role in their lives,
they wouldn't leave the school programs
completely untouched.
Bruce says he wished the business
management program had offered a bit
more instruction in the livestock area,
adding "But I realize it's had to try to
teach a detailed course in a short
period." He's also aware CCAT had done
a lot of upgrading, even in the two years
since he graduated, with students in his
course now exposed to computer
technology, among other things.
Julie, seeing the college from a
slightly different perspective than in her
student days, adds "Centralia has come a
long way when you consider it's only
been open since 1967. As far as
agriculture and foods, they've really
made a name for themselves."
But she adds, "I still maintain they've
got a good long way to go as far as
calibre of students goes - that's one thing
I'd like to see changed. Students, I think,
should have to be screened..." she says,
suggesting personal interviews before
students are accepted into CCAT pro-
grams might be the solution. That would
reduce the dropout rate, she believes,
and make it less frustrating for instruct-
ors who have to mark the exams of
students who shouldn't have been at the
college in the first place. In the animal
health course, for example, she says the
college often has ten times as many
applicants as openings. These students
are screened carefully, and that course
has almost a nil failure rate, she says.
Julie points out the admissions' regu-
lations aren't determined solely by
CCAT, but the higher powers that be,
with all Grade 12 graduates eligible to
attend the school.
Doreen's only criticism of her course
was that she didn't feel she learned much
new information on dairy techniques that
she hadn't already picked up on her
father's farm. But although she doesn't
do her father's books, she appreciated
the program's practical slant on book-
keeping, budgeting, credit management
and farm record-keeping.
Than again, if there's one thing CCAT
did reinforce, as Julie says, it was the
students' "fever for farming." And that's
not a bad disease for anyone hoping to
spend the rest of their days on the farm
as these three graduates do. C
„fp 6
Waiting Again,Eh!
You don't have to be a scientist to know that crops
that get adequate water do better than crops that don't.
And yet, year after year, farms that invest time, dollars
and hard work on a crop leave the yield to chance by
waiting for the weather to irrigate their fields.
An irrigation system from L.H. will not only increase
your yield, but it will improve the crop quality and that
all adds up to a higher return on that investment you
make every year.
Find out how an L.H. Irrigation
System can
make you money.
LH Resoutlre
Management \ /
R.R. 3, Walton
Ontario NOK 1 ZO
(519) 887-9378
Irrigation and liquid
waste utilization systems
THE RURAL VOICE, JULY 1983
PG. 13