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MORE THAN a few farmers would have coughed up their morning coffee on March 13 when they looked at the front page of the New Zealand Herald. There was a photo of a cow looking up at a rifle muzzle and about to get a bullet.
That was bad enough, but what riled dairy farmers was the caption, ‘Drought takes deadly toll on farms’. (I was reminded of a photo from the Vietnam War: a South Vietnamese military leader shooting a Viet Cong prisoner in the head – a powerful, chilling image capturing the milliseconds between life and death.)
I was chilled then outraged when I read the Herald caption. To be fair, the cow-shooting story was on the level. But the photo felt like a blow well below the belt.
Farmers may be having a tough time, but they are not letting stock suffer. We have asked MPI about animal welfare and they told us the condition of stock coming for processing is now no different from before the drought declarations.
Vets we have spoken to are full of praise for farmers’ animal health focus. This is despite meat and fibre farmers recently seeing their forecast profits halve and despite the North Island’s 2012/13 dairy season closing early.
Farmers are putting stock feed and water first, all much less dramatic than pointing a rifle at an animal’s head.
The North Island drought is why Federated Farmers’ employers’ and sharemilkers’ sections jointly pleaded for both parties in the business relationship to sit down and write a management plan to close the season. If sharemilkers are staying on this should help prepare the farm for when the new season begins.
For those whose contracts end on May 31, it is going to be a hard task to have pasture cover and supplements up to scratch because of the drought. It could even be worthwhile looking at supplements set aside for next season and discussing the merits of using some now.
These conversations cannot wait: they must take place now and not ‘next week’ and any plan must be in writing. Incoming sharemilkers will find things tough if what they need is still in the head of your ex-sharemilker who happens to be far away.
I talk to farmers every day and as each day passes without rain stress levels grow. It is why taking control and planning is better than hoping for an elusive shower of rain. Even if we get the good stuff, it will be late April before grass growth responds, and much pasture in the North Island and on the West Coast will need renewal or undersowing.
That is why I saw red over the Herald ‘execution’ photo. It is hard enough to listen to ‘experts’ on talkback radio without getting kicked in the guts by a supposed trusted news source.
We asked MPI and I understand the animal in that photo was seriously injured. A vet had attended but it needed to be killed. This happens every day on a farm somewhere in New Zealand. Putting a sick or lame animal out of its misery is appropriate, humane and is why I am livid over the caption, ‘Drought takes deadly toll on farms’.
To the reader it implies things are so desperate that farmers are shooting stock. It is rubbish. Farmers are responsibly getting stock away while they are in good condition. We all know livestock have to meet animal welfare requirements before trucking and for the occasional animal that has suffered a debilitating injury or illness, humane slaughter on-farm is appropriate under the animal welfare code.
Someone at the Herald took a shine to the photo and wanted to shoe-horn it into a story by hook or by crook.
• Willy Leferink is Federated Farmers Dairy chairman.
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