Report of Discussion

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

A Discussion was held in the Council Room. Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Young was presiding, with the Registrary’s deputy, the Senior Proctor, the Junior Proctor, a Pro-Proctor, and three other persons present.

The following Report was discussed:

Report of the Council, dated 30 May 2011, on the relocation of the University Farm from North West Cambridge to Madingley (Reporter, 2010–11, p. 893).

Professor D. J. Maskell (Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine) (read by Mr L. C. Dane):

Mr Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the University Farm provides an essential facility for teaching farm animal husbandry and clinical skills to our students. We are required by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to provide facilities to the best modern standards in terms of welfare and husbandry. The present Dairy at Park Farm meets these standards, but the calf and sheep facilities at Howe Farm and Gravel Hill Farm no longer do so. It is imperative that these are replaced urgently.

The relocation proposed in this Report will provide facilities of the required standard adjacent to the existing Dairy. This will have logistical advantages in delivering practical teaching, as all the livestock will be on one site. My colleagues have worked closely with the staff of the University Farm to design a facility which meets the future teaching needs of the Veterinary School. I commend this proposal to the Regent House.

Mr D. P. Hearn (Clare College, and Chairman of the Management Committee for the University Farm):

Mr Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the proposal to relocate the Farm’s buildings from North West Cambridge in order to consolidate operations at Park Farm in Madingley has involved close and constructive liaison between the Farm and the Veterinary School over a lengthy period. The scheme before you has been designed to ensure that practical veterinary teaching can be delivered in modern facilities of a proper standard. It will also provide the infrastructure to support a profitable farming operation. Particular care has been taken to minimize the scope and capital cost of the facilities provided.

Bringing together all of the Farm staff onto one site at Park Farm will bring operating efficiencies, and the provision of a modern grain store, which meets current assurance standards, will enable significant improve­ments to be made to the profitability of the Farm’s arable operations.

I commend this Report to the Regent House.

Dr D. R. de Lacey (Faculty of Divinity) (read by the Senior Proctor, Mr J. A. Trevithick):

Mr Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the University Farm has long been a feature of Girton’s landscape, since much of it is within Girton Parish. Girton residents will be sorry to see it go. There is in Girton a nature reserve in an ancient ridge-and-furrow meadow, and the village owes the University Farmer a debt of gratitude for his help in the management of this meadow. I would not wish this move to be approved without an acknowledgement of the benefit Girton has received from its presence.