Wishing the students “all the best in the future”, Mr Matt Boyd, principal of Greenmount Agricultural College, told them, during this week in 1967, at the annual prize distribution: “You must be prepared to work hard to make a success in farming, and I hasten to add that I am not thinking of physical work alone.”

He continued: “You must devote a great deal of thought to your business and spend a lot of time reading and visiting other farms to enable you to manage your farm efficiently.

“This is certainly not the occasion to say goodbye to books. You will keep in touch with the college through the Greenmount Association, and the chances are when you have decided on the lines of production on which you intend to specialise you will require to take another course either here or at some other college

Mr Boyd said it was a sobering thought to those of them engaged in agricultural education that it would be very difficult to hazard a guess at what agriculture would be like in 30-40 years' time when they were still active farmers. He said that the changes that had taken place from the 1930s until the mid to late 1960s had been “far reaching”, but that “the rate of change is now much greater than ever before, so it was impossible to foresee what lay some distance ahead”.

Dessie Wright, chairman of the Northern Ireland Ploughing Federation, explains the finer points of the competition to Minister for Agriculture, Michelle Gildernew, and the Mayor, Alderman Drew Thompson, at the Northern Ireland International Ploughing Championships at Eglinton in October 2007. Picture: Londonderry Sentinel archives

placeholder image — Dessie Wright, chairman of the Northern Ireland Ploughing Federation, explains the finer points of the competition to Minister for Agriculture, Michelle Gildernew, and the Mayor, Alderman Drew Thompson, at the Northern Ireland International Ploughing Championships at Eglinton in October 2007. Picture: Londonderry Sentinel archives

MODERN TECHNIQUES

Addressing the students, Mr Boyd said: “We have taught you the important fundamentals of agriculture and horticulture and we have demonstrated many modern techniques in production and marketing.

“But above all I hope we have taught you to think scientifically about agriculture and to keep full records and treat farming as a business.”

After welcoming the visitors and parents, Mr Boyd said that the 20th post-war session had been a very satisfactory one in terms of student achievement.

Matthew Simms, Co Donegal, makes a few adjustments to his plough at the Northern Ireland International Ploughing Championship at Eglinton.

He said that it had certainly been a very important one in the history of the college in that the accommodation for students had been increased from 80 to 140.

Mr Boyd noted that the college had started off the session with 140 students and that 134 had completed the course. Those who had left during the session did so largely through accident and illness at home. Of the 134, 130 had passed their examinations and he congratulated them on their achievement.

TREMENDOUS ACHIEVEMENT

With a class of about 130 in agriculture, it was a tremendous achievement for the students who got top place and for those others who got near the top, said Mr. Boyd, who added: “The greatest praise must go to Martin Douglas, from Co Derry, who is top at the very high average percentage of 85. Next, in order of merit, we have Cecil McIlwaine, from Tyrone; Hubert Lusby, from Derry, and James McAleese, from Armagh, “all of whom have very high marks”.

John Stewart, centre, from Dunfanaghy, pictured working with his pair of donkeys at the Northern Ireland International Ploughing Championships at Eglinton.

He noted that there had been seven students in the horticulture course and that all of them passed their examinations.

Mr Boyd said that during the previous session, for the first time, students were given the opportunity of entering for the National Certificate in Agriculture, which was the examination taken at the end of courses of this type throughout Great Britain.

He said: “The results were not available for presentation last prize day but I am very pleased to report that the achievement of our students compared very favourably with the centres across the water. Of the 98 students who entered, one passed with distinction, which in this case demanded a 76 per cent, average in every aspect of the work. Twenty-five passed with credit and 64 reached the pass level.

Mr Boyd expressed a very special word of thanks to the Commanding Officer and staff of the RAF at Aldergrove for the use of one of their hostels until the college's new building was completed.