Slaughtered calves end up in landfill
Six cubic metres can shrink by a third after it’s been dumped off the delivery truck and stacked in the woodshed. ‘‘They’ll measure it and ring us up and say, ‘we ordered six but it’s only three or four’,’’ Ignition Firewood director Carlos Ter Huurne said.
That’s because quantities of firewood are measured as if thrown into a certified container, such as the back of a truck, rather than stacked as a solid block.
From there, it’s much of a muchness delivering loads from his Auckland business.
‘‘If we drop off a six cubic metre load at one house . . . I could say confidently it’s between 1 per cent of difference [as that at another].’’
Sales peak in autumn, so the best time to buy is spring or summer, then stack it with a gap between the piles to help the air dry it out.
Pine is the most popular softwood and may take only six months to dry, but will burn quickly.
It’s best to mix it with a medium or hardwood, which can take a bit longer to dry but they will keep your home warmer for longer.
A survey by Consumer found the median price of a cubic metre of pine rose to $90 from $86 in 2017. And macrocarpa is pricier than pine with an average of $122 per thrown cubic metre.
In Wairarapa, Marilyn MacKenzie and husband Doug have been in the business for three decades.
She explained that the cord measurement readers still see in local newspaper ads is an imperial measurement equal to about 3.6 cubic meters.
In fact, section 10 of the Weights and Measures Act 1987 explains it’s only meant to be used if it’s supplementary to its metric equal.
MacKenzie said the couple had plenty of wood stored outside – they like to stay a couple of years ahead of demand – their small truck for private deliveries, such as around Wellington, is booked up until the end of June.
Both firewood businesses believed it would be too difficult to sell it by weight because of factors including about 60 per cent of freshly cut wood Officials ordered the slaughter of 2405 Mycoplasma bovis-diseased calves and had them dumped in a Winton, Southland landfill.
The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) said the livestock were ‘‘too small for the commercial chains and the cost of processing exceeded’’ each animal’s value.
On Thursday, in a parliamentary select committee hearing, National MP and primary industries spokesman Nathan Guy asked officials if they knew of any such dumping.
MPI’s director of response, Geoff Gwynn, replied ‘‘not to my knowledge’’. being made up of moisture compared to 20 per cent of dry wood. Hardwoods weigh more than lighter types.
Ministry of Business, Innovation
An MPI spokeswoman said yesterday ‘‘at that time, [Gwynn] could not recall any detail around this issue but has since checked and confirmed the above’’.
The calves were processed by Invercargill company Blue Sky Meats in its Gore plant, which had been decommissioned. It was re-opened to deal with the calves, which were sent to the AB Lime landfill between Winton and Browns.
The Southland District Council landfill receives waste from around the region.
It is not known exactly when the slaughter occurred but it is believed to be during the first few months of this year.
A further 1270 animals were killed on farms and taken to landfills as they were unfit for transport to processing plants for animal welfare reasons. and Employment (Mbie) senior trading standards officer Davis White said there was nothing to stop someone selling it by weight or stacked measure as long as it was accurate and the customer knew what they were buying.
MEANWHILE, IN AUSTRALIA
The Firewood Association of Australia considers buying by weight the safest method because you know exactly what you are getting so long as it is dry.
Because all dry firewood contains roughly the same amount of energy, buying by weight is a good way to ensure that you get the same amount of heat from every load, regardless of species and wood density.
Firewood Association of Australia general manager Dane McGreevy said the price varied between species, states, and was affected by the prevalence of illegal traders.
‘‘In regards to the species of trees that we use in Australia for firewood, they are all much more dense hardwoods and generally a better type of firewood than is found in New Zealand – better meaning longer burning, few sparks and good coals.’’
MPI said the majority of these were calves and their destruction was ordered under the Animal Welfare Act. Some onsite autopsies of the animals showed multiple factors for their condition – for example rotavirus and pneumonia. The calf slaughter is part of the cull of 22,000 cows which is under way, with nearly half of the animals already destroyed.
Guy said it was ‘‘an alarming revelation because the animals were fit and healthy enough to travel yet were slaughtered at a processing plant and dumped in a community landfill’’.
‘‘M. bovis meat is fine for human consumption and pet food, which makes a mockery of this Government’s pledge to end poverty when the meat could have easily ended up in sausages.’’