We are concerned about dairy cows standing out in excessive heat next summer.
On a trip to Levin from Whanganui last summer on a very hot day, I saw many herds of dairy cows standing, not grazing, in high midday sun. There was no evidence of shelter of any kind in any of the numerous paddocks I passed.
Before retirement we owned a small farm in the king country with sheep , goats and cows.
There was a lot of natural shade and shelter for winter.
Every animal sought shade during the hottest months as expected.
If shade is available animals use it.
My understanding from my study of once-a-day milking for my animal management course is that a heat-stressed cow will produce less milk. So it is counterintuitive to remove shelter from cow paddocks to grow a bit more grass.
Then there is the New Zealand Animal Welfare Act specially for dairy cows relating to overall welfare.
Dairy farming provides farmers with excellent personal profits from milk, bobby calves, calves to grow on for beef and replacement calves. Isn’t it time to plough some of those profits into greater consideration of the welfare of the animals that provide that income, such as shade and shelter for the millions of golden geese (sorry, cows) that graze the pastures of New Zealand?
Wendy and Dick Ward
Whanganui
FMD: tough memories and hard lessons
All the talk of foot-and-mouth disease is bringing back some unhappy memories. I was working on a large mixed farm in the UK which got FMD and we had over 4000 head of various stock slaughtered. It was a very tough time and one I never want to experience again.
I think the greatest risk of an outbreak in New Zealand comes from feeding swill to pigs, which was the source of the UK’s outbreak. It only takes one person on a lifestyle block to feed some scraps to their few pigs and it could all start from there.
With over 20 years’ UK and 10 years’ NZ farming experience, I think the systems here are much more vulnerable. Here in the Waikato, we have a very large area with nothing but cattle. It would spread like wild fire. The UK had a lot more mixed farms with cropping covering large areas, also there are more towns and non-agricultural parts that provided a natural fire break to the spread.
If FMD arrived in autumn and stock movement restrictions were put in place for several months, it could mean dairy heifers having to calve at the graziers and not be able to be milked.
It also affected the wider community with local sports leagues cancelled and many walking trails closed in the UK. This had a major impact on local hospitality businesses, which never got compensated.
I only hope the NZ government reacts fast to an outbreak, unlike the UK government, which was always chasing it and totally underestimated its impact on arrival. The Dutch had FMD in March 2001. They culled around the infected farms, but vaccinated all stock within 2km of the infection. This strategy saw the outbreak eradicated in two months. I just hope NZ follows the Dutch example and not the UK’s if FMD ever arrives on these shores.
David Leng
Morrinsville
