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KILLING bobby calves with hammer blows to their heads should send shivers down the spine of every Kiwi dairy farmer.
The days of ‘she’ll be right’ are gone, as are the days when ‘what happens on the farm stays on the farm’.
And perceptions held by onlookers are as important as ever. Vast numbers of people now own a camera-cellphone, and social media can spread misinformation at light speed.
Trying to educate the public about farming practices is by-and-large a lost cause because townies, especially in Auckland and Wellington, dwell in another universe.
It may be that farmers now must try to think like an imagined Aucklander -- or a Berliner -- to try to second-guess their perceptions of how farming is and how it ought to be.
The citizens of Grey Lynn and Karori need to know that farmers see no great sport in bashing their baby charges with hammers, nor, for that matter, having their vets induce calves. We acknowledge the public, with the animal ethicists, want animals killed ‘nicely’. (Sentient beings are to be euthanased humanely, not bashed to death.)
New Zealand agribusiness is vulnerable because it pitches its products to the affluent and educated – the high end of the market. The reward is better prices, the requirement is higher standards.
Farming leaders need to get off the fence and lead from the front, personally showing their farms as examples of best practice in animal welfare. One-time airline owner Sir Reg Ansett once said “the speed of the boss is the speed of the team”. Right!
Dairy farmers need to be one step ahead of the consumer and offer new value propositions that show they are leaders not followers of best practice.
A Rangitikei farmer has been indefinitely banned from owning animals and sentenced to serve 9 months and 3 weeks’ home detention following animal welfare failures that caused the death of more than 140 animals.
Lincoln University Dairy Farm will be tweaking some management practices after an animal welfare complaint laid in mid-August, despite the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation into the complaint finding no cause for action.
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.
A recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand ‘Farming for Profit’ field day drew about 100 people keen to hear about the policies that drove performance at Erewhon Station, located on the Taihape to Napier Road.
The New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) has welcomed the Labour Party's support for the New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement.
Wallaby control efforts in Canterbury have received a major boost, with Canterbury Regional Council releasing $2 million from its Pest Management Reserve.
Finding and supporting ‘champion farmers’ – or top-quality farmers - is one of best ways of getting other farmers to take the appropriate measures to mitigate environmental issues, according to a leading Irish scientist Dr Mary Ryan.
Zespri has unveiled Grown for Good, a refreshed global brand platform, in an effort to reinforce the company's commitment to nutrition and creating value across the kiwifruit industry.
For the first time in more than 30 years the Government has set a new set of radical priorities for the science it funds - including agriculture.
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