Since interest.co broke the story about animal neglect on a farm near Benneydale in the Crafar Farms group last week they 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. Some tough questions need to be answered writes Bernard Hickey. 1.Are we using water properly? Are large herd dairy farmers paying a fair price for that water? 2.Are these large herd farms and their debt levels sustainable when they eventually have to pay for greenhouse emissions? 3.Has some land been converted that is not sustainable without the Fonterra payout being higher than NZ$5/kg 4.Are some large dairy farms financially unsustainable given likely long term payout levels and their current debt levels? 5.Is the intensification of land use, particularly through nitrate leaching, destroying our waterways? 6.Are the managers of these large herd farms, who are often employees and contractors rather than share milkers or owners, up to the task? 7.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? 8.Are the processes for monitoring animal welfare and staff welfare strong enough and well-funded enough? 9.Is MAF focused too much on enabling growth in output and not enough on monitoring sustainability? 10.Is Fonterra monitoring the quality of its suppliers/shareholders closely enough? Are its penalties and sanctions for suppliers strong enough? 11.Is reform needed in the bobby calf industry, given prices are now so low it isn't often economically viable to feed calves?
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