No notice for rule breakers
Southland dairy farmers need to be prepared for the new bobby calf rules coming into effect next month with MPI warning there won’t be warnings before infringements are handed out.
MPI manager of animal welfare and compliance (south) Murray Pridham was in Southland last week to speak to farmers and transporters about their obligations under the new regulations.
Before the first bobby calf welfare rules came into place an average of five million calves were born each year, with an average of 2.2 million going to slaughter. Pridham said the mortality rate of the calves in 2015 was 0.25 per cent.
The regulations introduced last year banned blunt force trauma, ensured the fitness of calves for transport, set maximum times for transporting them and prohibited transporting them across Cook Strait.
Last year 1.93 million bobby calves were processed, with a lower mortality rate of 0.12 per cent. Of the 2255 calves recorded as having died or were condemned, 263 were animal welfare cases reported, 208 warning letters were issued to farmers, and two infringements were issued. Transport companies received 122 warning letters and 10 infringements were issued.
Next month three new regulations come into effect and farmers will need adequate loading and unloading facilities and follow shelter requirements before and during transport. The maximum time off feed before slaughter is now 24 hours.
All calves which are dead on arrival, condemned on arrival, dead in yard or condemned in yard will have autopsies carried out to find the cause of death.
Pridham said the ministry’s aim was to inspect at least 300 dairy farms nationally for compliance.
As well as monitoring bobby calf transport and slink truck collections, and having veterinarians on-site at processing plants, MPI will be cracking down on farmers and transporters breaking the rules.
‘‘Our process last year was to implement a warning initially to farmers, this year there will be no warnings,’’ Pridham said.
Transporters would still get warning letters, but they would get infringement notices if non- compliance continued, he said.
‘‘We sort of feel that the transporters bore the brunt of things last year. It’s a wee bit unfair with the way things potentially operated last year because farmers have the opportunity to see their calves for four days on farm, and should be able to identify issues in that time. Whereas a transporter only has a very short period of time to see the calves when they are loaded.’’
The regulations had been put in place for a reason, and MPI had to make sure they were met, he said.
Federated Farmers Southland dairy chairman Graeme McKenzie said it was important whoever was looking after the calves on farm were making the right decisions, because farmers did not want to be leaving the onus on transport companies to make the decisions about whether calves were fit for transport.
‘‘If we are in doubt about whether a calf is fit for transport then it is best for it to be left behind.’’
Some farmers were concerned about the lack of specifications for loading and unloading facilities. McKenzie said as long as they met the requirements for the transport company and allowed calves to move freely onto and off of the truck they would be suitable.
There are 91 new animal welfare regulations proposed by MPI and 21 of them relate to stock transport and farm husbandry.