David Gasquoine

 

Mike S. introduced fellow Rotarian David G. Always hard to find something new to say about someone we know so well. But summed it up saying David had played for Hinuera rugby club, done share-milking for 43 years and loved to travel...a good segue into David's talk.

David and Kathy were given the opportunity to work and live in America, whilst he wished it had come many years ago he didn't want to regret later passing it up. They moved in 2019 to Astoria, a city in Oregon - population only slightly bigger than Matamata. Dairy farming in USA is very different to NZ, they are more production focused versus profit, if they don't make enough profit they are more likely to get more cows and more feed to make more milk rather than working out what the issue is. David was wary of coming across as knowing more than they as it was their land and they knew it best and how the cows are. However one of the first things he did was to set up water reticulation, 29kms of pipe to bring water to the herd rather than the cows travelling daily to the water, getting stuck, and having to be hauled out and herded back. Immensely time saving, once he was able to locate the necessary items...no water tanks, ballcocks or even alkathene pipe! Another trick was to teach the cows how to graze, as the cows were used to being fed out. There were so many positives to their stay , the experience and the people were fantastic - Covid was literally the only negative. But all good things have to end, and the draw of the family and grandchildren was strong, so back they came. 

Miranda and Eli thanked David for his inspiring talk.

 

 

	10-Sept           Full meal			13-Sep                No meal
Programme	Johnny Dryden		Community night - Kauri grove weeding. Jane to confirm.
Reception	Owen	Farmilo
Reception	Peter	Thissen
Speaker Intro	Krishna	Narayanasami
Speaker Thanks	Peter	Vossen
Parting thought	Owen	Westlake
Top Table	Wade, Nicole,	Johnny & K