Tuesday, 27 October 2020 10:00

Lack of succession plans causing welfare concerns

Written by  Peter Burke
Gary Orr. Gary Orr.

The Ministry for Primary Industries’ head of compliance says a lack of a viable succession plan with some older farmers is leading to animal welfare issues on some farms.

Gary Orr says this trend is showing up in some of the animal welfare issues that MPI has dealt with in recent years. 

He says a couple have worked hard all their life to build up a farming business, but often the next generation is not interested in taking over the business. He says the couple are not keen to walk away from farm life because it is part of their DNA and they have put their life into the property.

“They have a strong connection to the land and they try to soldier on to a stage when the farming challenges are beyond them and that’s when they get into trouble,” he told Dairy News.

“We have had a few cases in recent time where we have been working with people in those circumstances trying to correct the course they were on. Sadly we haven’t been able to affect changes on the farm and we have ended up having to put them before the court, which is a really tragic situation,” he says.

Orr says such people have been law abiding citizens all their life and the last thing we want is to end their farming career with a conviction.

Despite the best efforts of MPI and rural professionals, there are still a number of breaches of the animal welfare code and regulations and Orr says farmers need to be held to account for treating their animals properly and conform to best practice standards. 

He says if MPI comes across a situation where farmers are ill-treating their animals they will try and work with a farmer to get them to put the situation right. He says they will arrange for a veterinarian or farm advisor to help an individual. They may also issue a notice of direction under the animal welfare act.

“We only prosecute if the situation requires it, with people failing to comply with warnings or if the abuse is so wilful and of such a significant nature that it’s in the public interest to do so.  At the end of the day it’s all about the welfare of the animals – we want to see the animals treated ethically and lawfully so long as they are on a farm,” he says.

Many reasons

Gary Orr says there are many reasons why animals are ill-treated on farms. Some is just bad practice, but often there are other personal issues in the background such as domestic relationships.

Compliance and meeting regulations are also factors, but he says the issue of Covid-19 has not appeared as a major issue. He also points out that farming can be a very lonely business.

“As you know there are communities where there is a limited ability to interact with peers and lots of these people come from a generation where you don’t ask for help. So we work very closely with the Rural Support Trust when we are involved in an animal welfare situation to try and get help for individuals. The Trust can help these people while we focus on the wellbeing of the animals,” he says.

On average MPI receives about 900 complaints related to animal welfare issues each year. But Orr says a significant number of these come from city folk who have moved to rural areas and who don’t have an understanding of normal animal husbandry practices.

“People from urban areas often see farming through a different lens. For example, we have had complaints about farmers letting their sheep have their lambs in the rain and the people who complained couldn’t understand why farmers weren’t out there getting the lambs under cover,” he says.

Orr says while many of the complaints are well intentioned but not valid, he’d still prefer for people to contact the ministry if they see something they are not sure about rather than not report an activity. He says animals are a valuable asset to farmers and they invest a lot of time and money in them and not to look after them properly simply doesn’t make sense.

More like this

Massive bounce back

The Director General of MPI, Ray Smith, says the growth in the kiwifruit sector is a massive bounce back.

$8b export milestone

Horticulture Minister Nicola Grigg says she takes her hat off to all NZ growers for the hard yards they have put in over the last few years which have resulted in horticulture exports expected to reach the milestone of $8 billion this year.

Dairy earnings bounce back

"We at Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and you at Dairy News said over six months ago that the dairy industry would bounce back, and it has done so with interest.”

PETA wants web cams in shearing sheds

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.

Featured

Let the games begin!

New Zealand's largest celebration of rural sports athletes and enthusiasts – New Zealand Rural Games - is back for its 10th edition, kicking off in Palmerston North from Thursday, March 6th to Sunday, March 9th, 2025.

The future of beef breeding

Progeny testing at Pāmu’s Kepler farm in Southland as part of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Informing New Zealand Beef programme is showing that the benefits of hybrid vigour could have a massive impact on the future of beef breeding.

Editorial: GMO furore

OPINION: Submissions on the Government's contentious Gene Technology Bill have closed.

Chilled cow cuts enter China

Alliance Group has secured greater access for chilled beef exports into China following approval of its Levin and Mataura plants to supply that market. With its first load of beef from Levin clearing Chinese customs in early January and a shipment from Mataura recently arriving in China, journalist Leo Argent talked to Alliance general manager safety and processing Wayne Shaw.

National

Certainty welcomed

There's been very little reaction to the government science reform announcement, with many saying the devil will be in the…

Science 'deserves more funding'

A committee which carried out the review into New Zealand's science system says the underinvestment will continue to compromise the…

Machinery & Products

Landpower win global award

Christchurch-headquartered Landpower and its Claas Harvest Centre dealerships has taken out the Global After Sales Excellence award in Germany, during…

Innovation, new products galore

It has been a year of new products and innovation at Numedic, the Rotorua-based manufacturer and exporter of farm dairy…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

No buyers

OPINION: Australian dairy is bracing for the retirement of an iconic dairy brand.

RIP Kitkat V

OPINION: Another sign that the plant-based dairy fallacy is unravelling and that nothing beats dairy-based products.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter