title: Transient geographies: 50:50 sharemilking in the Waikato

authors: Adams-Hutcheson, Gail

subjects: assemblage

abstract: Spacings of mobile farming in New Zealand: Assemblages of cows, bodies, farms and the weather Weather changes moods – Nirvana, “In bloom” (1991) Cresswell (2011) broadens mobility studies to include non-human objects and structures, but rarely, non-human animals and the weather. I add here both livestock and the more literal atmospheric conditions of sun, wind and rain which are largely missing from mobilities studies. Weather is ubiquitous, yet hard to ignore – it impacts on both researcher and the researched. I visited farms and was: jumped-up-on by dogs, rode on 4-wheel bikes, got licked by calves [happy/sunny], felt hot, got covered in dust [tired/sweltering], stood still in the milking-shed [tension/cold], and was blasted by freezing winds and slopped through thick mud [depression/winter wet]. For Ash (2013a, 35) “the body is a kind of living or somatic memory, which is composed of various retentional apparatuses”, which become ignited by alignment of senses. In this paper I argue for attention to be paid to sharemilking and the materiality of atmospheres to draw attention to the ‘centrifugal’ forces of mobile rural dwelling. Sharemilking is a largely unique agrarian practice in New Zealand which is embedded in the notion of mobility. Sharemilkers typically own the livestock and machinery, but not the land and enter into contract with landowners on a share profit basis. Contracts are finished and new ones are taken up on a set day, the 1st June which is often termed colloquially as ‘Gypsy-day’. The contract nature of sharemilking stimulates a cascade of mobilities and enabling infrastructures (assemblages) as farmers move on a stuttering schedule of contract renewals. The frequent upheaval of hundreds of large animals and sheer amount of equipment moved, which is needed to run a sharemilking operation, does warrant further consideration.

text: Transient geographies: 50:50 sharemilking in the Waikato Spacings of mobile farming in New Zealand: Assemblages of cows, bodies, farms and the weather Weather changes moods – Nirvana, “In bloom” (1991) Cresswell (2011) broadens mobility studies to include non-human objects and structures, but rarely, non-human animals and the weather. I add here both livestock and the more literal atmospheric conditions of sun, wind and rain which are largely missing from mobilities studies. Weather is ubiquitous, yet hard to ignore – it impacts on both researcher and the researched. I visited farms and was: jumped-up-on by dogs, rode on 4-wheel bikes, got licked by calves [happy/sunny], felt hot, got covered in dust [tired/sweltering], stood still in the milking-shed [tension/cold], and was blasted by freezing winds and slopped through thick mud [depression/winter wet]. For Ash (2013a, 35) “the body is a kind of living or somatic memory, which is composed of various retentional apparatuses”, which become ignited by alignment of senses. In this paper I argue for attention to be paid to sharemilking and the materiality of atmospheres to draw attention to the ‘centrifugal’ forces of mobile rural dwelling. Sharemilking is a largely unique agrarian practice in New Zealand which is embedded in the notion of mobility. Sharemilkers typically own the livestock and machinery, but not the land and enter into contract with landowners on a share profit basis. Contracts are finished and new ones are taken up on a set day, the 1st June which is often termed colloquially as ‘Gypsy-day’. The contract nature of sharemilking stimulates a cascade of mobilities and enabling infrastructures (assemblages) as farmers move on a stuttering schedule of contract renewals. The frequent upheaval of hundreds of large animals and sheer amount of equipment moved, which is needed to run a sharemilking operation, does warrant further consideration.

year: 2016

title: Customizing digital library interfaces with Greenstone

authors: Witten, Ian H.

subjects: computer science

abstract: Digital libraries are organized, focused collections of information. They are focused on a particular topic or theme—and good digital libraries will articulate the principles governing what is included. They are organized to make information accessible in particular, well-defined, ways—and good ones will include a description of how the information is organized (Lesk, 1997).
The Greenstone digital library software is intended to help users construct simple collections of information very quickly. Indeed, only a few minutes of the user's time are needed to set up a collection based on a standard design and initiate the building process. Collections may be large—some comprise Gbytes of text; millions of documents. Furthermore, even larger volumes of information may be associated with a collection—typically audio, image, and video, with textual metadata. Once initiated, the mechanical process of building the collection may take from a few moments for a tiny collection to several hours for a multi-Gbyte one—perhaps even a day if it involves many different full-text indexes.

text: Customizing digital library interfaces with Greenstone Digital libraries are organized, focused collections of information. They are focused on a particular topic or theme—and good digital libraries will articulate the principles governing what is included. They are organized to make information accessible in particular, well-defined, ways—and good ones will include a description of how the information is organized (Lesk, 1997).
The Greenstone digital library software is intended to help users construct simple collections of information very quickly. Indeed, only a few minutes of the user's time are needed to set up a collection based on a standard design and initiate the building process. Collections may be large—some comprise Gbytes of text; millions of documents. Furthermore, even larger volumes of information may be associated with a collection—typically audio, image, and video, with textual metadata. Once initiated, the mechanical process of building the collection may take from a few moments for a tiny collection to several hours for a multi-Gbyte one—perhaps even a day if it involves many different full-text indexes.

year: 2003

title: Boat electrofishing salvage of fish in the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir

authors: Hicks, Brendan J.

abstract: The aim of the survey was to salvage fish from the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir before dewatering and dam removal. We used the University of Waikato’s 4.5 m-long, aluminium-hulled electrofishing boat to catch a total of 140 fish weighing an estimated 37.0 kg along 8 fishing tracks sites on 24 February 2022. These tracks comprised 2,807 lineal m and 11,228 m2 in area. Shortfin eels (Anguilla australis) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the only fish species present. Mean density of eels caught was 2.9 fish 100 m–2 and mean biomass was 7.84 g m–2. The eels and bullies were transferred to sites downstream in the Waiwhakaiho River by iwi members of the two hapū - Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura. Water clarity, expressed as black disc distance (BDD, 1.05 m), was good for a shallow lake, and water temperature and water conductivity were close to optimum for electrofishing. Poor water clarity can reduce the efficiency of electrofishing, so we left time after fishing each track for the sediment suspended by the propellor wash to sink before refishing a track.

text: Boat electrofishing salvage of fish in the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir The aim of the survey was to salvage fish from the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir before dewatering and dam removal. We used the University of Waikato’s 4.5 m-long, aluminium-hulled electrofishing boat to catch a total of 140 fish weighing an estimated 37.0 kg along 8 fishing tracks sites on 24 February 2022. These tracks comprised 2,807 lineal m and 11,228 m2 in area. Shortfin eels (Anguilla australis) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the only fish species present. Mean density of eels caught was 2.9 fish 100 m–2 and mean biomass was 7.84 g m–2. The eels and bullies were transferred to sites downstream in the Waiwhakaiho River by iwi members of the two hapū - Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura. Water clarity, expressed as black disc distance (BDD, 1.05 m), was good for a shallow lake, and water temperature and water conductivity were close to optimum for electrofishing. Poor water clarity can reduce the efficiency of electrofishing, so we left time after fishing each track for the sediment suspended by the propellor wash to sink before refishing a track.

year: 2022