To change the format, you have to specify custom binding with <%#...%> tags. I'm not really an ASP.NET person, so I'm hesitant to try to lead you here.
Ohh...and the problem is that you aren't using a "strongly typed dataset" so indeed you must *CAST* the Object (which is what r{"xxx"] gives you...a generic Object) to the proper type.
So *probably* just
Code:
DateTime dt = (DateTime) r["First_Resurvey_Date"];
But not a C# person, either (Java and C++), so you might have to use an explicit convert function.