By Bernard Hickey Since we broke the story about animal neglect on a farm near Benneydale in the Crafar Farms group last week I have been deluged with emails and comments from many people in the rural community citing examples of animal neglect on other large herd dairy farms, as well as neglect on other Crafar Farms. Unlike the video provided by 'Just another farmer', I have not been able to verify any of these claims. But they are unprompted and the details involved carry the ring of truth, if not proof itself. I'm in no position to investigate all this evidence in any systematic way. It's time for the government, MAF, Fonterra, Federated Farmers and DairyNZ to step up and launch an official inquiry into the sustainability of New Zealand's massive herd dairy farms in terms of their environmental sustainability (effluent treatment and water use) and in terms of animal neglect. The growth in large herd dairying over the last decade has been explosive. Often funded by massive debt, these farms with more than 1,000 cows have changed the nature of dairying in New Zealand. They require a different style of management, different corporate structures, different ways of managing and recruiting staff, and different ways of managing animals. New Zealand has never done a stock-take into a major change in the way we use land. It's time to take a breather and work out whether this structural shift in our biggest export industry can be sustained without damaging our reputation, blowing out our our debts and putting massive strain on workers and animals. The big conversions and irrigation driven expansion is continuing apace. Applications to build 19 farms with more than 22,000 cows on 25,000 hectares in the Mackenzie Basin are being considered by Environment Canterbury, the ODT has reported. This type of farming requires intensive irrigation and cows to be in cubicle barns in winter and parts of Summer. Some tough questions need to be answered:
- Are we using water properly? Are large herd dairy farmers paying a fair price for that water?
- Are these large herd farms and their debt levels sustainable when they eventually have to pay for greenhouse emissions?
- Has some land been converted that is not sustainable without the Fonterra payout being higher than NZ$5/kg
- Are some large dairy farms financially unsustainable given likely long term payout levels and their current debt levels?
- Is the intensification of land use, particularly through nitrate leaching, destroying our waterways?
- Are the managers of these large herd farms, who are often employees and contractors rather than share milkers or owners, up to the task?
- Are the workers on these farms, who are often from the Philippines, India and Indonesia, well trained enough to keep themselves and their animals safe?
- Are the processes for monitoring animal welfare and staff welfare strong enough and well-funded enough?
- Is MAF focused too much on enabling growth in output and not enough on monitoring sustainability?
- Is Fonterra monitoring the quality of its suppliers/shareholders closely enough? Are its penalties and sanctions for suppliers strong enough?
- Is reform needed in the bobby calf industry, given prices are now so low it isn't often economically viable to feed calves?
Why an inquiry might not happen I've spoken to MAF Director General Murray Sherwin, Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter and Fonterra Chairman Henry Van der Heyden in the last week. I asked them all if they were concerned that the stunning growth of large herd dairy farms was unsustainable. None of them were worried. The common view was that Crafar Farms was a bad apple that needed to be cut out of the industry. They are now working hard to do that as quickly as possible without further endangering the health of Crafar's animals, its staff and the family itself. I was repeatedly told that now was the time for the big boys to get on with it behind the scenes and get on with cutting out this one problem farmer. More would be achieved through back room deals than any public inquiries, they said. But are they really committed to changing? It's worth remembering that just last year David Carter himself challenged then Minister Jim Anderton about problems within MAF dealing with animal welfare issues, in particular the fact MAF has 5 inspectors for the whole country or 1 inspector per 10 million animals. This is what the head of investigations at MAF, Greg Reid, had said a year ago.
The reality is at the moment we are so thin on the ground and we are running from bushfire to bushfire. A lot of what the public see is just the surface of it - it's quite chaotic
It appears not much as changed if the reaction to 'Just another farmer's' complaint is considered. Murray Sherwin's response when I asked about whether MAF had enough inspectors was to say that throwing money at the problem was not the solution. He defended MAF's approach of working with farmers cooperatively to fix animal welfare issues rather than prosecuting. One senior farming industry figure even suggested that Crafar Farms had improved markedly over the last year and needed more time for its changes to bed in. Fonterra has never, from my knowledge, stopped collecting milk from a farm because of environmental or animal welfare problems. It's worth remembering that Allan Crafar was so popular within the industry that he was on Fonterra's Shareholders Council for 6 years until 2007. His right hand man, Sam Webb, was Central Plateau Farm Manager of the Year in 2007. He also won the RD1 Farm Management Award and the Dairy Insight Human Resources Management Award. Webb was managing Crafar's largest farm at Taharua between Napier and Taupo Rd in 2007, Country Wide reported at the time. The farm has 4,521 cows and 15 staff milking cows from 4am to 10pm. It was seen as a model for the industry and hosted a field day for up to 100 farmers in 2007. A year later Webb was prosecuted for releasing too much effluent on the Taharua Farm. The farm is blamed for polluting the Mohaka River, the DomPost reported. Webb was the farm manager parachuted into the Benneydale property by Crafar when things went horribly pearshaped earlier this month. He was also the man who assaulted Bryan Spondre when he and I turned up to ask a few questions. But it's more than the Crafars Here is the evidence below that has come to us via email, that was posted on our blog and that was posted on other blogs, including those at NZHerald and TradeMe. Problems range from neglect of cows, cows with broken tails, early induction of dead calves, rubber rings put on tits with mastitis and injured cows left in races and taking days to die. Just another Farmer -
The things I have seen. Tiny perfectly formed induced little bodies lying dead and dying in heaps around cowsheds. Every morning lines of labouring cows waiting to be helped with calving. If these cows had been seen to at an earlier time, much pain and suffering and more successful outcomes would have been achieved. Outside bobby calf sheds calves that havent quite died yet left to dehydrate and die in the sun. Or wind. Or rain. Calves crook with Navel ill, something easily fixed with an antibiotic, not treated and left to die. Stretched out and suffering on the shed floor. Often being stood on by others because the pens are too full. Induced cows foetuses dying inside them and becoming mummified. Induced cows dying just because inducing is rough on their metabolic systems. Horns turning inwards and growing back into the skull, clearly obvious to the farmer, but left, just left. Cows. Broken Tail after broken tail after broken tail. 200 lame cows in a herd of 700. Rubber rings put on adult cows tails. Diseased cows not seen by a vet in a timely manner. Every good farmer knows a story, every vet, every AB tech, every bobby truck driver, every farm serviceman. Many people in the community know it, discuss it, shake their heads about it. But I reckon its time we made the dairy farmers own it. Its their industry. Its their leaders they have to shake up. I make a good bit of income from the dairy industry, I want it to succeed, but I am having an increasingly hard time living with this.
Storis like this are unfortunatly no news to me and I feel a bit confused about the whole thing. It was not that long ago that that Crafars and their property developer friends were the poster boys of the success story of NZ dairying and were going to save the country and make us all wealthy. Only very few people seemed to be concerned that the ever increasing average herd sizes would be an issue. The moment the nz dairyindustry said goodbye to the familyfarm in pursuit of greater wealth for a few, we had to realise a 300 cow farm run by an owner operator or a 1500 cow farm run by staff often unmotivated and underpaid and owned by a property developer who has a few more farms like that are two completely different things. We are now waking up to an industry that has grown to fast and have to face the consequences.
I've been farming all my life and occasionally I miss a fly stuck ewe or a cattle beast with a worm infestation or an infection. This is absolutely appalling yet its been common knowledge in the industry for years. We have big dairy farmers employing vets so they can continue to induce and if you think this is bad be around for the results of that. This is an affront to every Kiwi farmer that cares about his animals and always puts animals first,the NZ milk industry under Fonterra has completely lost its head,this will have consequences we need to brace ourselves . Perhaps its time to dig up the photo of the tractor being driven down the road in the Central north Island with a live cow impaled on its silage forks while it moved its head from side to side. That was 2 years ago I think. Ive been talking to some friends in the industry and general comments are this is not unusual although they are not happy about it but say nothing its honor amongst farmers i guess. They have talked to me before about mastitis cows getting a rubber ring on the offending teet, but Im afraid its a result of farmers chasing capital gains and Fonterra paying more for milk than the market was paying, creating a huge bubble. Bankers have now become total fools.
I knew one of his managers when he worked in the South Island"¦.Absolute plonker whose herd death rate was appaling. Only lasted the one season with the Farm Owner and eneded up working for Crafer as no one would employ him.Sources have told me his herd death rate is still unreal and where not talking about Calves either. From this i would say most of Crafers farm workers are the unemployable in the industry and have no scrupples or animal welfare skills what so ever. I'm glad to say that this is a very small minority from dealings i have in the dairy industry and most farmers will be appalled. I urge Fonterra to stop taking there milk and close them down"¦although i suppose he'll just end up supplying Talleys dairy industry which isn't much better when it comes to clean buisness ethics!!!
Well this has been a long time coming and something we have discussed in lectures. ((Some)) farmers need to start thinking outside the square and about the long term sustainability of the industry if they want to survive, others are doing an amazing job of it already but keep getting dragged down by scenarios like this one. Yes it's tough to keep an eye on everything on a farm but the calves are generally always right where everybody can see them and so there are absolutely no excuses here, just gross negligence. New Zealand's point of difference on the world stage is its clean green grass fed image. Our customers think about a place (NZ) they would love to be when they consume our products. Well what the hell will they think now then eh? I feel ashamed to be part of an industry with such fools running some of our largest agricultural enterprises. Mr Crafar is not totally to blame here, as a farmer with so many farms He must need to place a huge amount of faith in his farm managers (like that nutter that hit the reporter). Sometimes in any industry the faith you had in someone proves to be a mistake, unfortunately more than once in the Crafars case. Dairy NZ gets about 40 million dollars from milk levies a year for agricultural research and extension. This helps dairy farmers improve their business and achieve their targets, how about giving MAF some of those levies to ensure there will still be a dairy industry for students like me to work in when we graduate.
This farmer is not on his own with the treatment of calves you have demonstrated. When it comes to the practice of the chemically inducing of healthy calves' for a bit of extra milk to send to Fonterra, farmers seem not to hesitate using this practice. If the public knew the full story of what happens behind the scenes on a dairy farm all hell would break loose.
About time though its taken years later
Hi there well I can vouch and say I have actually worked on the crafar's farms to name a farm is in Reporoa on Goudies rd RD1 the 108 cup as/hb the one you have to start the boiler a few3-4 hrs first before you start milking. and Mangakino,there newer farms with the automatic cup removers and automatic shed a few actually in the past and I and one of My ex partner's worked for them and I went through hell working for them. I was brought up on farms too and have alot of experience of farming.but I can say this when you lean to farm you are to learn all the right way's of things in farming that's right?. well all i learned to do at his farm's was to do all the wrong thing's and all the bad thing's and all the short cuts they show you. I just want to say we tried to get help when we were working for them and as soon as i saw that shed with the Bobbi calf's in i knew where it was and whose farm it was and I did take photo's and video clips when we were working there and we did call Maf but because the new manager's did not want to get involved there was no way they could do anything just with 2 people wanting to do something. As there was not enough support to go any further to support what we had against the Crafar's.I have no sympathy for Alan at all when I have seen him cut off a baby calf's head off with a chainsaw because the cow was having issues of giving birth and he was a sick Man when he did that it made me sick that night he did that. I have now moved on since then many yrs later and have a new partner,when we My ex and i was leaving there the new house was just finished that he lives in and he was just about to go to Australia to buy more farms to increase his farms,All i have to say is I do not recommend anyone to work for them at all,you wont get help from them or compensation or anything accidents are a normal and almost deadly thing everyday on their farms. that's all I have to say but it's about time they got the Bugger's.
I saw the programme tonight and I have to say I have unfortunateley seen worse (usually where there are absentee owners and young workers, both with insufficient experience to recognise they have a problem...crafars don't have that excuse). I have seen some not as bad that I know MAF acted on within 1 day. The best thing that could happen to the NZ dairy industry is for the Crafars to get out of farming or downsize to something they can manage. The people that have the clout to make sure that happens are Fonterra...they claim to have a commitment to environmental and animal welfare standards yet they make themselves complicit by accepting milk from farms that let the rest of the industry down.
Maybe time for some 50:50 SM then
A lot of these big farms around are run by cowboy managers who don't give a shit about the animals under their care, because no matter what happens they still get their cheque at each payday. Having a stake in the animals under your care certainly puts a different slant on things. When one of my cows die (which doesn't happen too often) it is a case of their is a stake in my equity that's gone. Not just, oh well another dead cow. Also funny how the best operaters seem to be able to get good staff whereas circus masters can only employ monkeys!!
As much as I deplore what happened on TV
As much as I deplore what has happened, the sad fact is that there are a few farms like that, perhaps not as bad, but not good either, all that I know of are owned by big farm owners, with mulitple farms and not enough staff/good staff to overseer whats going on. And the farm owners are too busy being members of boards to get out and look at their farms and what is going on. Had someone come in and TB test cows last week and she was saying she had been to a farm where the cows were so skinny is was disgusting, when asked if she had reported the farm to MAF, her reply was that it wasn't her job. To me that's a cop-out and part of the problem, you can't tell me that the bobbie calf truck drivers, vets and any other service personal didn't see what was going on. As much as crafer needs to go I actually think the buck stops with the Mangaer on this one, it is not as if there wasn't enough milk to feed the calves, just that no one was doing the job to any sort of degree.
Yes I have worked for them many yrs ago for a long time , and I know what they are like and he is to blame , he did not care way back then and why would he care now . like he said he does not care at all . he takes all the short cuts and does all the wrong things the wrong way and teaches all the wrong things to do and that's his teachings and his way of learning . stop sticking up for him he is no angel
This whole debacle is in my view "a shot across the bow" of all absentee farm owners who either employ or contract people to manage their properties for them. There is also I feel a real issue that needs to be addressed in regards to some large scale operations that are simply too big and cumbersome to be competently managed by the vast majority of the population if indeed anyone.
I have worked around Dairy Farms as an Engineer and have seen many calves when they get sick they are just left to die not put to sleep , if they were Kittens or Puppys the owner would be prosecuted by SPCA and it would be all over the News . But because it's Farming it's Ok ! Yeah Right No it's not . I have seen a Cow who was so sick she lay Dying in the Lane way close to the shed all the 650Plus milking cow's had to walk past her 4 times a day coming and going to Milking's , many of them stopped to sniff her as she took several days to Die . The farmer could have carted her away with the farm loader to die in piece or to shoot her , instead of stressing all the other cows . This isn't an isolated insident as I've seen it many time's before in feed Paddocks or Creeks the cows some times get grass staggers or Nitrogen posioning or are just poorly feed with over numbers and lack of feed in a cold/wet season . It's a Shame on the Dairy industry as a Whole because it's not just a few Farms . Come on MAF you know its a problem and saying you don't have the resources is BULL SH-T
I work in a related industry and have been waiting for something to come out of this nature this calving season. It's an economic decision for the farmers. The farmers have 2 options, shoot them or pay the costs. With the number of calves born around the country running into hundreds of thousands, probably millions, it's a huge problem for the dairy farmers this season. The works are paying very little for bobby calves. Last year skin prices were reasonable, and that is where the works made money of the calves. The veal yield is only around 7kg so there is very little money in that. The farmers have to feed the calves for 4 days to get them to a "truckable" state. The money they are receiving this season from the works/petfood operators is less than the cost of keeping them alive for 4 days. When the dairy payout has declined so much for the farmers, cull calves are just another cost that they don't need. The Craffers don't have the heart to shoot them, hence the problem of suffering to death. Some of the slinky operators aren't even collecting dead calves as there is no money in the skins this season which creates another problem. These calves have to go somewhere, which one can assume is down a hole. I wonder how much water contamination will eventuate with all the leaching of dead animals?
As you are aware, this is not the one off as the dairy industry would have us believe. Didn't we hear the same tired refrain on behalf of the pig farmers? Actually institutionalised cruelty is part and parcel of the industry and the only question we have to ask is where does one draw the line. Obviously these peasants have set new records. Part of the problem are the ignormuses most farms employ at the coal face, most of whom would need a manual to dress themselves. But to really pin point the source of the problem one only has to follow the money. Numerous vets I have spoken to admit to witnessing numerous examples of abuse. In nearly all cases I have been told of their frustrations in dealing with that defunct entity MAF. If the vet complains to MAF, the culprit pretty swiftly drops them and uses another vet, preferably sporting a blind eye. The minister responsible David Carter once again deafens us with his silence. Time for him to fall on his sword.
This is just the tip of the ice berg. I have seen many cases of calves left to starve on dairy farms, and the SPCA is just not interested.
I doubt that this practice is restricted purely to the Crafar's; I've seen similar on other farms. I have to question not only the farming practice but also the financial acumen of dairy farmers who take out all their Fonterra profits in milk solids payments leaving no retained earnings to fund future growth and diversification away from commodity product into value added product - remember Fonterra IS the dairy farmer. The wheel will turn full circle and the boom will go bust if things don't change; Fonterra will never realise its potential as a world market leader while it is run by those dairy farmers who are driven purely by minimising costs to maximise payout.
My parents own a dairy farm which is just out of Auckland. We go there often for holidays as it's a coastal block. They have had various sharemilkers on the property over the years. The last one was a real b****** who not only assaulted people but starved his animals (sheep included) and let good stock die for no reason. The usual argument put up by farmers PR people is that farmers won't do this because it makes economic sense to look after your animals and the land. Well that's just BS in my opinion. These guys do what they do because they can and they want to. It also makes sense to do the wrong thing money wise too sometimes, like letting effluent go into streams and/or lakes because it's too much hassle to deal with it the right way.
Anonymous by email
Crafers are not the only ones that farm in this fashion. When we were farming, the job stories amongst farm workers at get togethers would make your hair stand on end. A few years ago my husband and I worked for a large scale farmer on the Napier-Taupo highway. Photos and complaints that I made were taken with a grain of salt. It was very disheartening, that the people we are supposed to turn to for support in these matters were absolutely useless. This is actually an understatement. These people are allowed to continue their farming practices today. Many, many animals have sadly lost their lives through disgusting cruelty. A few snippets; Heavily pregnant cows arriving by truck in the middle of the night. Dead cows trying to calf during the trip or we had to help calf them after the truck left. Excessive amount of yearlings paralysed after giving birth, due to the pinched nerve as calf was too big. Impregnated with semen of an animal that the yearling had no show of delivering. Starved cows dropping and stumbling in the raceway while trying to walk to the cowshed. Watching the owner leaning a rifle on a post outside the cowshed shooting cows as they walked out of the shed, making statements such as "don't like the look of that one." Bus load of tourists will be arriving this afternoon, go around the farm, kill all the cows that are down and can't get up. The only way to kill them was the guys used to club them to death with a 4x2. I ordered a stun gun and owner cancelled order cos the cost was to high. There are many stories. Spca did not even visit. Local vets that I called to tend sick animals did not want to be involved. I was told not to call the vet as it is too expensive. MAF sent a letter advising of visit, they visited and saw all the photos but did nothing. This farmer is on a par with Crafer. There is plenty of evidence even today of his farming practices.
Where I'm coming from Some people may wonder why I'm spending a lot of time on this. After all, the focus of this site is economic and financial news, rather than animal welfare. Firstly, this something our readers have been commenting about on our site for months, particularly in relation to the growing debt in the dairy industry. The events at Crafar Farms and the evidence from 'Just another farmer' have also given encouraged us to look more deeply at this issue. But there is a personal angle here. I grew up on a dairy farm at Galatea near Rotorua that had around 200 cows. My father was a dairy farmer on that farm. My grandfather converted that farm (a rehab farm) himself. My great grandfather was a dairy farmer in Taranaki. I studied agricultural economics at Massey University. I worked on our dairy farm on school holidays from the age of 12, often feeding calves. I worked on other dairy farms on university holidays until my early 20s. My brother is a dairy farm worker. I also have had a long professional interest in the dairy farm industry. I have been covering Fonterra as a journalist since 2004. I regularly talk to Fonterra executives and farmers. New Zealand has a long and proud history of family-run dairy farms. The debt-driven growth Crafar Farms is not a proud moment in that history. We must ensure we can be just as proud of the next chapter in dairying, even if it includes very large herds and corporate farmers. I fear, however, that the dairy industry is making it up as it goes along. Now is the time to take a breather and review whether the current direction is the right one.
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