Last updated 05:37, Friday, 01 August 2008

Ralph Bee, who was deputy county agricultural officer for Cumberland from 1954 to 1964 has died at Torbay Hospital in Devon aged 92.

For services to agriculture: Ralph Bee, honoured by the Queen

Born and bred on a West Riding dairy farm, he attended Mexborough Grammar School in South Yorkshire and then spent four years on his uncle’s dairy farm at Wickersley, Rotherham.

While delivering milk to a local housing estate, he met his future wife of 63 years, Doris.

After winning a Ministry of Agriculture junior scholarship, Ralph studied at the Northampton Institute of Agriculture and was awarded a certificate with distinction.

A West Riding County Council scholarship followed, and he read agriculture at Leeds University. This scholarship was extended so he could also obtain a National Diploma in Dairying at the Dairy School for Scotland at Auchincruive.

Ralph started his working life as assistant farm bailiff at the Northampton Institute of Agriculture at Moulton, where he enjoyed teaching young farmers. Farm manager positions followed in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

At the age of 23 he was solely responsible for a 212-acre mixed farm with 35 pedigree dairy cows, sheep and pigs.

In 1942 he took up the post of advisory officer to the West Riding War Agricultural Executive Committee in Thorne, a mainly arable district in the south-eastern part of the county.

On the setting up of the National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) in 1946 he continued for six years as district officer in the Pontefract, Selby, Goole, and Tadcaster/York districts.

Promotion took Ralph to the NAAS county HQ at Harrogate for two years as advisory assistant, with supervisory responsibilities in three districts in the south-eastern arable area of the county.

In 1954 he was appointed deputy county advisory officer for Cumberland and moved his young family to Carlisle for 10 years.

During that time his responsibilities included supervising the ministry show exhibits, farm experiments and farm demonstrations across the county. He was also in charge of his own district round Carlisle and became a member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Grassland Society.

In 1964 Ralph was appointed director at Drayton Experimental Husbandry Farm, Stratford upon Avon. One of the most notable achievements during his 16 years at Drayton came when he showed how traditional mouldboard ploughing could be abandoned without any yield loss, when preparing cereal seedbeds. This is recognised as one of the greatest contributions to the development of intensive corn production on heavy soils.

During his career at Drayton he chaired the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS) National Forage Crops Committee and was seconded onto ministry delegations to other countries including visits behind the iron curtain to Moscow and Prague.

He was instrumental in setting up the ADAS Feed Evaluation Unit at Drayton and founded the Warwickshire Grassland Society holding the office of honorary life president.

In the New Years Honours List for 1981, Ralph was awarded the Companion of the Imperial Service Order for services to British Agriculture.

Ralph retired to live with Doris in Paignton, Devon in 1980 and settled down to a life of walking through the local countryside, gardening (a strict, four-course rotation) and being head of an ever-expanding Bee family.

He maintained his interest in the British Grassland Society, the Warwickshire Grassland Society, the Farmers Club, the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Haymakers Society.

He was a vice-president of the Cambridge Sheep Society and a member of Mole Valley Farmers.

His daughter Barbara became a senior supply supervisor for the Cumberland School Meals Service. Son Geoffrey’s agricultural career in the UK was with Shell and internationally with Hoffman La Roche. Another son, John, ran his own environmental company based in Jamesburg, New Jersey, USA.

Ralph leaves six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.