National Pest Management Plan for TB seeks feedback
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
DairyNZ biosecurity manager Chris Morley, a vet with long experience with Mycoplasma bovis in Canada and his native UK, says NZ is unusual in its “open” farming systems.
Morely told a public meeting in Ashburton earlier this month that common practices here are off-grazing, lease bulls and the sharemilking system. Farmers form herds at the changeover time of year, perhaps leasing 100 cows and buying another 50 to get the numbers up, he said.
“We move animals around very freely and that’s been convenient and it’s a profitable model. Unfortunately that model is not a good model if [it contributes to M. bovis staying here],” said Morley.
“And that’s why MPI is up at the plate at the moment with industry trying to stop it.
“Because we don’t want it to mess with our model, but that’s the reality: if you’re moving animals around that’s how it spreads.”
Mackle said he had cleared his desk to make it to the Methven and Ashburton meetings, which followed the first confirmed M. bovis infection in the Ashburton district.
Although DairyNZ is closely involved in the disease response, the Ashburton meeting was the first he had been able to attend in districts known to have the disease.
He applauded farmers’ turnout and willingness to move against the disease, finding out what they could do together and individually.
“A good response effort is going on right now but fundamentally – and this is why bulk milk testing is so critical – we still don’t know with absolute confidence where this disease is and where it’s not,” he said.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
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