Dairy farmers face moving day in lockdown

Dairy farmers are worried they will be left stranded if the coronavirus lockdown extends to their traditional moving day.

Every year, hundreds of sharemilkers around the country move their cows, equipment and families to new farms on June 1.

But with the nationwide lockdown set to last at least four weeks and potentially much longer, concerns are growing about their ability to move on time this year.

Vanessa Jury, who farms at Carterton in Wairarapa, is due to take up an assistant manager role at Patoka, near Napier.

Although her move, if it goes ahead, should be straightforward, many other farmers are worried about the logistics of a move mid- or post-lockdown.

‘‘I don’t have any cows to shift. But there are people who need to move whole herds from the North Island to the South [Island],’’ she said. ‘‘Everyone’s had trucks booked but they’re all being cancelled. Even if moving does go ahead on June 1, there’s going to be a rush and a backlog.’’

Jury was worried by the potential for farmers to spread the virus if moving day went ahead during or shortly after the lockdown.

‘‘It’s literally thousands of people moving all over the country. How do you get them all to new places safely?’’ she asked.

A lot of farmers were herdtesting at the moment and the task required more people than usual in the milking shed.

‘‘Everyone’s doing their best but but we still have tanker drivers and suppliers coming onto farms every day,’’ she said.

‘‘We don’t want to cause a second wave of the virus, but would we have to self isolate again on the new farm?’’

The Ministry for Primary Industries’ deputy director-general of agriculture, Karen Adair, said the ministry was working closely with industry groups such as Dairynz, Beef and Lamb NZ and Federated Farmers to determine the best options while ensuring farmers remained safe and well. Those decisions would be made in the coming weeks, she said.

Federated Farmers sharemilkers’ chairman Richard Mcintyre said he had raised farmers’ concerns with several MPS and expected to see progress being made soon.

‘‘Farmers aren’t alone in this. There are a lot of ... people changing jobs that might need to move across the country. There are a lot of industries in the same boat so we should take some comfort in that.’’