Dr John Moffitt, CBE, DLC, FRASE 1929-2008
An Appreciation by D W Fattorini
Dr John Moffitt, CBE, DLC, FRASE 1929-2008
In writing this appreciation of John, who was the Chairman of this Club in 1983 and our President from 1997-2005, I include his Curriculum Vitae (see inside back cover), which clearly shows better than I can the enormity of John's contribution to the art, science and technology of agriculture.
I first met John's father when I was 8 years old when he bought an in-calf heifer from my grandfather. In his autobiography '60 Years of Farming' John describes this purchase 'as a stroke of luck or a perceptive judgement'. I am sure it was the latter. The bull calf that the heifer carried was the first bull that the Hunday herd took to the Reading Bull Sales. He was reserve champion and 'top price by far'.
It is quite extraordinary that 66 years later I can still remember part of the conversation between John's father and my grandfather. Mr Moffitt knew what he required and was determined to get it - a characteristic John clearly inherited.
John's great skill was his reading of events as they were evolving. Nothing illustrates this better than his leading involvement with another great friend of mine, Brian Draper, in the setting up of Cattle Breeding Services. I do not think it is realised today that AI in itself did not have a great effect on pedigree breeding, but the introduction in the late 1950's of frozen semen had enormous consequences. A few, such as John, realised that this new technique would completely change pedigree breeding particularly, then, the dairy side.
The leading pedigree herds began to feel the effect as their bull sales became increasingly difficult. John and his group knew very clearly that in order to protect their position they had to get into frozen semen selling. Another consequence of frozen semen was that you could market it all over the country from one station thus facilitating a relatively small company getting into the business. Having realised the situation and the requirements they got on with it.
The bedrock of John's life's work was the Hunday Friesian Herd. This great success story was achieved in a relatively short time considering that there were no pedigree registrations until three females in 1937 and only a further fourteen in the next three years. By 1950 this had become a very good herd; by 1960, world class. The Hunday hallmark was stamped right through the entire herd and they were all like peas in a pod. May I suggest the reading of John's autobiography. The early chapters provide an insight into how this was done -'Dedication and hard work'.
Most of the original purchased females were from one herd, by one sire mated in the first instance, and in the main to three closely related sires. This was done without the use of 'such sophisticated aids as contemporary comparisons, cow indexing and classification systems . . .' to quote John. Clearly both father and son relied heavily on visiting other herds and making their own judgement. Prior to the purchase of Adema 88 in 1950, they visited 30 herds in Holland and had made up their minds prior to the sale on which bull they wanted and they got him. The use of mainly four bulls in the first twenty years must seem to be totally foreign to the present day breeder. A recent, large, important sale had an average of seven and a quarter progeny per sire and 84% of the females in this large catalogue were born within a period of 6 years.
John also perceived by the late 1950's that the price of labour was rising much faster than the price of product. By then he had already begun to modernise his machinery but realised that the cattle buildings and layout had to follow. In introducing parlour milking and loose housing John led the way forward by breaking away from the concept that pedigree cattle had to be individually stalled, with all its implications, to get the best results. This move to parlour milking was of course facilitated by the great uniformity of their cattle. The aim had always been not only to improve performance but also to breed cows with better structure, legs and mammary system. The result was great wearing cattle that allowed a large number of on-farm sales.
It cannot be stressed enough the educational importance of the Hunday Herd, the professionalism, the management and the type of investment being shown to the many thousands of visitors who came to his Peepy Farm. All this was being done by a tenant farmer, not by a rich industrialist. The Moffitt family, by leading the way, showed the future.
There is no way I can describe in this short appreciation all John's activities in any detail, such as the MOST enterprise, the Hunday electronics and all the committee work. I can only suggest again reading John's autobiography, '60 Years of Farming'. No, I am not on commission!
One of my most vivid recollections of John was on visiting Peepy shortly after the arrival of the first and very dilapidated old tractor. John spent more time showing me this than all the wonders that Peepy had to show. I admit I was not all that interested, but to show some interest I asked who he was going to get to restore it. Shock horror appeared on John's face: 'Me, of course'. I had not until that moment realised John's ability with his hands; not just taking farm machinery apart but producing wonderful turned wooden ornaments, bowls, vases, etc. One of his last objectives in his final illness was to finish a sculpture of a tree, which of course, he did.
John had a complete life outside farming; photography, flying aeroplanes, gardening, antiques, travelling and collecting a vast range of various items. He had a fantastic collection of farming books, historical and modern, which made me drool with envy and, of course, his great Agricultural Museum, which won the Museum of the Year award in 1981. In his farming and related activities, he was very much a 20th Century man but in his 'other life', he was very much a man of the 18th Century. Certainly a polymath.
One of his last ideas, unfortunately never realised because of his ever increasing illness, was a Livestock Foundation. This was to research and study all aspects of livestock and create a public awareness and interest in the role of our livestock in our island's story. By livestock was meant everything from the humble hen to the mighty thoroughbred. Not just a study of the livestock themselves either, but their development and their role in the economics of our country, in shaping our landscape, literature, paintings, sport, etc. (not forgetting the racing pigeon). What an idea! This still must be done.
May I turn to John and this Club. As, has already been said, he was our Chairman in 1983 and President from 1997-2005. He attended the first Conference in 1948 and the majority since. He gave a number of excellent papers himself. His published 'Personal Review of the British Cattle Breeders Club 1948 - 2005' is a complete catalogue of the papers read in the first fifty-seven years plus his comments. This will be of vast interest for those studying, in the future, the development of cattle breeding. It should be remembered that the papers themselves are now available on disc.
By his support for the Club (and also that of other notable breeders such as Ben Cooper) John emphasised to other breeders that the Conference was a key forum to support. He also commanded respect from the scientific members of the Club and thus was able to make suggestions that helped to moderate some of their less practical ideas.
John was a great family man and the whole family are supportive of each other. He was the first to acknowledge the great part his mother and father had played in his life. He was extremely blessed by a loving marriage to Madge and the joy it brought to both of them and the great pleasure they got from their two children, Sue and Peter, and the grandchildren.
John wrote a poem entitled 'Epitaph when I die', clearly describing his life -'No better times could any man have wished'. These verses were included in the service sheet for John's Memorial Service at Hexham Abbey. This vast church was full of people from all parts of our country coming to pay their respects to John. Recently, I came across a verse that seems to me to epitomise John:
To live is to learn To learn is to know To know is to grow To grow is to give To give is to live
Finally, the following quotation appeared in the History of Agriculture written in the early 1940's by an eminent American professor:
'The great advance of English agriculture and England led the world for over a century and was largely due to the enterprise of a relatively small number of private persons'.
John was most certainly a member of this elite and exclusive group.
| Name | John Edward Moffitt CBE,DCL,FRASE | ||
| Date of Birth | 11 September 1929 | ||
| Education | Distington Council School, Workington; Cumbria St Bees School, Cumbria; University of Newcastle upon Tyne | ||
| Status | Married - Spouse Mrs Madge Moffitt | ||
| Family | Susan Jean Moffitt (26/01/55) Peter Edward Moffitt (04/10/57) | ||
| Occupation | Farming - family business (E Moffitt & Son) Hunday Herd of Holstein Friesians | ||
| Honours | |||
| 1973 | Fellow of Royal Agricultural Society of England (FRASE) | ||
| 1976 | CBE - Services to Agriculture | ||
| 1982 | Massey Ferguson Award UK - Services to Agriculture | ||
| 1985 | Doctorate of Civil Law, Newcastle University (DCL) | ||
| 1989 | Honorary Associate, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons | ||
| 1994 | International Person of the Year - World Dairy Expo, USA | ||
| 1995 | Princess Royal Award - RABDF for outstanding achievement to the Dairy Industry | ||
| Awards | |||
| 1977 | Silver Medal - RASE In-Parlour Programmable Feeder(Hunday) | ||
| 1979 | Burke Trophy, Royal Agriculture Society - contribution to Dairy Farming (Hunday Electronics) | ||
| 1980/1 | Premier Cattle Breeder Award (UK) | ||
| 1981 | Museum of the Year Award (Hunday Museum) | ||
| 1981 | Silver Medal - Out-of-parlour control and feeding system Hunday | ||
| 1982 | Museum of Europe Award (Reserve) | ||
| 1983 | Silver Medal - Integrated Feeding and Recording System (Hunday) | ||
| Judging Appointments | |||
| Royal Show; Royal Welsh; Royal Cornwall; Royal Show, Melbourne, Australia; Royal Show, Brisbane, Australia; Royal Show, Christchurch, New Zealand; over 100 other shows in the UK | |||
| Papers presented | |||
| Talks and lectures to over 350 groups since 1954. Represented UK at 6 International Holstein Friesian Conferences | |||
| 1972/79 | Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London | ||
| 1981 | Institute of Electrical Engineers, London | ||
| 1963/2000 | British Cattle Breeders Club, Cambridge | ||
| 1972 | World Holstein Friesian Club, Italy | ||
| 1988 | World Holstein Friesian Conference, Kenya | ||
| 1989 | American Holstein Convention, San Diego | ||
| 1992 | Oxford Farming Conference | ||
| 1994 | World Dairy Expo | ||
| 1994/5 | RABDF Conference, Malvern | ||
| 1996 | University of Nottingham research conference | ||
| 1995 | RASE - Biotechnology and Farming | ||
| 1996 | Myerscough College - Technology Transfer to High Genetic cows | ||
| 1995 | Agvet Forum - rebuilding the Industry after BSE | ||
| 1996 | NFU Biotechnology Seminar - Research into Practice | ||
| 1997 | The Royal Society of Medicine - Genetic Engineering in Food Production - The Farmers Perception | ||
| 1998 | The Milk Producers Organisation (MPO), South Africa on Deregulation of the Milk Industry | ||
| Committees and Boards | |||
| 1981-1999 | Advisory Committee, Edinburgh University Research Farms, "Langhill" | ||
| 1988-1998 | Advisory Board of Newcastle University Research Committee | ||
| 1975-1995 | Advisory committee AFRC Institute of Genetics, Roslin, Edinburgh | ||
| 1995-2000 | Statutory Committee, the Chair of Agriculture, Newcastle University | ||
| 1997-2004 | President RABDF | ||
| 1997-2005 | President, British Cattle Breeders Club | ||
| 1978 | Patron of Northumberland Holstein Friesian Club, Life President of HFS | ||
| 1961-1979 | Secretary and Manager of Cattle Breeders Services (first private AI in the UK) | ||
| 1979-1989 | Chairman of Premier Breeders Ltd. Prior to being sold to the MMB in 1989. This company pioneered Embryo Transfer and private AI and established the UK's largest National Embryo Transfer business and established the first MOET programme in 1988, pioneering a new approach to cattle breeding. | ||
| 1969-1997 | Friesian Council. Holstein Society | ||
| 1972 | President, Holstein Friesian Society | ||
| 1973-1997 | Senior Vice President, Holstein Friesian Society of GB | ||
| 1971-1975 | Swan Committee "Future Needs of Veterinary Profession" | ||
| 1975-1981 | Member of the Joint Consultative Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture | ||
| 1975-1986 | Newcastle University Farms Advisory Committee | ||
| 1976-1977 | Chairman, Fund Raising Committee for Ruminant Research Unit, Cockle Park, University of Newcastle | ||
| 1977-1980 | Northern Economic Planning Board | ||
| 1979 | President of Newcastle University Agricultural Society | ||
| 1979-1988 | Advisory Committee of Scottish Research Farm, Crichton Royal Dumfries | ||
| 1980-1986 | Chairman of COLT Committee - co-ordinating linear assessment of cattle in the UK | ||
| 1981-1984 | Trebane Committee on Future needs of the AIIndustry | ||
| 1982-1988 | Newcastle University Development trust | ||
| 1983 | Chairman of the British Cattle Breeders Club | ||
| 2000-2001 | Independent Review of Dispensing Veterinary medicines, Chair, Sir John Marsh | ||
| 1984-1990 | Member of Priorities Board for R & D in Agriculture and Food Banner Committee on Ethical implications of genetic engineering of Farm Livestock | ||
| 1984-1992 | Chairman - Governing Body of AFRC's Engineering Research Institute, Silsoe | ||
| 1984-1994 | Advisory Committee, AFRC Inst of Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge | ||
| 1990-1995 | Newcastle University - Careers Advisory Board | ||
| 1991-1994 | Chairman of the National Animal Data Centre | ||
| 1991-1995 | Government Committee established by the Ministry of Agriculture to consider the ethical implications of genetic engineering in the Breeding of farm animals | ||
| 1987-1990 | Animal Research Committees for Agriculture and Food Research Council | ||
| 1991-1998 | Scientific Advisory Committees for the Centre for GENOME Research, Edinburgh | ||
| 1995-1998 | Chairman, Milk Development Council | ||
| 1997-1998 | Member of the Selbourne Committee Enquiry into Veterinary Research | ||
| 1994-1997 | President, Ferguson Heritage
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