I am saddened to hear of the passing of another great RAC stalwart, Dai Barling. Here are a few comments about him that I recently shared with John Wibberley, another RAC great lecturer
What an incredible lecturer Dai was. But to steal a saying from an alternative sport to his favourite Rugby, what a fantastic innings he had!
He had an amazing ability to hook his students in everything he taught us and he knew exactly how to do so. Having done so, a wonderful smile would appear on his face. His beautiful Welsh accent was unmistakable. Once he knew he had us hooked, he would often add his famous “you see” to every sentence. The more excited we all became, the more “you see”‘s he would add. Even getting to the stage of a few “you see, see”’s!
We once tried to take a tally of how many times this happened during a lecture and lost count. Not because they happened so often, but because the message he gave us was so exciting, that we forget to keep counting.
However, we all ended up in fits of laughter one day when he was talking about the latest popular Tetraploid Ryegrass Variety. In the highly unlikely event that there had been any students half asleep, the laughter following “Sabrina makes a good Ley“ certainly woke them up again! Dai said it on purpose of course, as his famous smile showed it instantly.
Another thing I remember Dai for during my time at RAC, many of us were adjusting from Acres to Hectares. I’ll quote here from Dai as best as I can remember it:
“Well boys, whenever I find it difficult to visualise a Hectare, all I do is think of Cardiff Arms Park (the old one!). That’s about a Hectare!”
He had his priorities, of course.
I was so keen to put into practice what I was learning from him, that I often telephoned my father in Suffolk, to put into practice his wise words. One of which was to split Nitrogen applications on wheat and put the first dose on about three weeks before we expected growth. My father took some convincing about this, let alone that 10 tonnes/ha or in his eyes, 4 tons/acre was now achievable!
Nonetheless, he was prepared to give it a go. He chose what he thought was a fairly light tractor to put the fertiliser spreader on, but forgot the wet hole in the 27 acres “Lancer’s” field. Where the Fordson Super-Major attached to an Amazon fertiliser spreader full of Fisons 33.5% Nitrogen fertiliser got stuck on 14th February 1978 for the next 6 weeks!
Can you imagine what all our neighbours thought of that?
Lancer’s being the first field he had tried to spread, we were still stuck in the two tons/acre average yield bracket that year. But the 20 acres he had spread before he got stuck were nearer 3 tons/acre.
A more modern tractor with dual wheels, attached to a Nodet DP12 spreader worked better the following year, as did our average yields.
The variety was Maris Huntsman. A variety that Dai identified and showed us how we could identify by its unique widened oblong furrow in the middle of its fold.
RIP Dai.
Fond memories!
What an incredible lecturer Dai was. But to steal a saying from an alternative sport to his favourite Rugby, what a fantastic innings he had!
He had an amazing ability to hook his students in everything he taught us and he knew exactly how to do so. Having done so, a wonderful smile would appear on his face. His beautiful Welsh accent was unmistakable. Once he knew he had us hooked, he would often add his famous “you see” to every sentence. The more excited we all became, the more “you see”‘s he would add. Even getting to the stage of a few “you see, see”’s!
We once tried to take a tally of how many times this happened during a lecture and lost count. Not because they happened so often, but because the message he gave us was so exciting, that we forget to keep counting.
However, we all ended up in fits of laughter one day when he was talking about the latest popular Tetraploid Ryegrass Variety. In the highly unlikely event that there had been any students half asleep, the laughter following “Sabrina makes a good Ley“ certainly woke them up again! Dai said it on purpose of course, as his famous smile showed it instantly.
Another thing I remember Dai for during my time at RAC, many of us were adjusting from Acres to Hectares. I’ll quote here from Dai as best as I can remember it:
“Well boys, whenever I find it difficult to visualise a Hectare, all I do is think of Cardiff Arms Park (the old one!). That’s about a Hectare!”
He had his priorities, of course.
I was so keen to put into practice what I was learning from him, that I often telephoned my father in Suffolk, to put into practice his wise words. One of which was to split Nitrogen applications on wheat and put the first dose on about three weeks before we expected growth. My father took some convincing about this, let alone that 10 tonnes/ha or in his eyes, 4 tons/acre was now achievable!
Nonetheless, he was prepared to give it a go. He chose what he thought was a fairly light tractor to put the fertiliser spreader on, but forgot the wet hole in the 27 acres “Lancer’s” field. Where the Fordson Super-Major attached to an Amazon fertiliser spreader full of Fisons 33.5% Nitrogen fertiliser got stuck on 14th February 1978 for the next 6 weeks!
Can you imagine what all our neighbours thought of that?
Lancer’s being the first field he had tried to spread, we were still stuck in the two tons/acre average yield bracket that year. But the 20 acres he had spread before he got stuck were nearer 3 tons/acre.
A more modern tractor with dual wheels, attached to a Nodet DP12 spreader worked better the following year, as did our average yields.
The variety was Maris Huntsman. A variety that Dai identified and showed us how we could identify by its unique widened oblong furrow in the middle of its fold.
RIP Dai.
Fond memories!
