Calf scheme canned due to disease fears
and talk about those sites of significance in the comfort of their own marae or home.’’
There’s also an environmental advantage of this filming, Muntz said. If filming is done again in about five years, it’ll show any big changes.
It should be live on Google Street View by the next Waikato River Festival, in March next year.
‘‘There is a wealth of history and storytelling along the whole 425 kilometres.
‘‘Every part of the river has a story.’’ IHC has suspended its calf and rural scheme for the first time in 33 years due to the risks of it spreading Mycoplasma bovis.
IHC national manager fundraising Greg Millar said suspending the scheme was not easy but the organisation could not be part of something that puts farmers’ livelihoods at risk.
‘‘It was a huge decision. We got as much information as we could and, in the end, we thought we have to make this decision despite the potential impact.’’
He said they wanted to make a decision now to let farmers know with calving about to get underway.
The scheme has dairy farmers donate calves to the IHC which are then sold at saleyards around New Zealand with all of the money going to the organisation.
Last year, more than 3568 farmers gave 2863 calves to be sold. Farmers also gave 456 virtual donations, raising $1.45 million in total.
‘‘We are hoping people will think about supporting us in a different way,’’ Millar said.
The decision was made after conversations with farmers at Fieldays as well as after consulting with industry groups and the Ministry for Primary Industries.