increase font size
A Northland farmer (62) has been fined $5000 and banned from owning more than 70 cows for two years after being found guilty of animal welfare offences.
MPI says animals suffered unnecessarily because the farmer failed to provide for his cattle’s physical, health and daily needs.
Kenneth Charles Wood was sentenced recently at the Whangarei District Court. As well as the fine and ban, he was ordered to pay court costs of $130 and veterinary costs of $525.
MPI brought a prosecution against Woods because of a complaint about the condition of some of his cattle on his Oruawharo property. He owns a 64ha block of which 36.4ha is effective grazing area.
MPI told Dairy News that animal welfare inspectors visited Wood’s farm and found about 80 cattle of mixed age, sex and breed. The cattle had free range over the entire property where internal fencing and infrastructure were derelict.
Pasture cover was uniformly low, estimated at 1000kg/DM/ha or less across the farm, and there was no evidence of supplementary feed being provided. The inspectors saw cows in poor body condition, especially two emaciated Jersey cattle.
Wood was found to have failed to ensure sufficient food was available to his cattle as outlined in the Sheep and Beef Code of Welfare and they were underfed for a long time.
Wood claimed it had been a wet winter and feed was short.
Ngai Tahu's legal action seeking self-determination (rangatiratanga) over fresh water could have huge implications for the future of farming, the viability of farming businesses, and our wider rural communities, says Federated Farmers national vice president Colin Hurst.
OPINION: The end-of-year booze-up at the posh Northern Club in Auckland must have been a beauty, as the legal 'elite' let their hair down and showed us how entitled and political some in the judiciary really are.
Animal rights protest group PETA is calling for Agriculture Minister Todd McClay to introduce legislation which would make it mandatory to have live-streaming web cameras in all New Zealand shearing shed.
The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) says it will investigate claims of animal cruelty made by animal rights group PETA.
Shipments of live animals by sea should be possible in the second half of next year, according to Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard.
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
OPINION: Will synthetic milk derail NZ's economy?
OPINION: According to media reports, the eye-watering price of butter has prompted Finance Minister Nicola Willis to ask for a…
