PM visits farmer hit by bovis cull
Ardern and O’Connor travel to South Canterbury to hear first-hand about effects of cattle disease for dairy farm Farming couple to start again after cow loss
The Prime Minister yesterday visited a farm where Mycoplasma bovis was detected and 950 dairy cows culled to hear first-hand accounts of how the stressful process can be improved.
The Government announced on Monday that a world-first attempt would be made to eradicate M. bovis in New Zealand at a cost of $886 million over 10 years and involve the culling of more than 150,000 cattle.
Jacinda Ardern and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited Leo Bensegues’ dairy farm at Morven, South Canterbury, yesterday.
Bensegues had 950 dairy cows and 200 more younger stock culled last month. He has received the bulk of a $2m compensation payout and is now preparing his farm to be restocked once the 60-day stand-down period has passed.
The Prime Minister wanted to talk through the experience with Bensegues and others about what they have been through, learn what improvements can be made, and see how the Government can “give certainty to those directly affected”.
“We know that there are areas where we need to keep lifting our game and we are committed to doing that,” she said.
Ardern admitted mistakes in the past, especially through uncertainty created in the early days of the outbreak, and said there was no doubt it has been a difficult process. But she is now confident the systems will be quicker and more improved with the certainty that will follow Monday’s eradication decision.
O’Connor yesterday morning announced the appointment of a science adviser, 50 more staff for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and a new field headquarters as the Government ramps up its response to the outbreak. He accepted it’s been “a big challenge” for MPI but says it is doing “everything we can to help the farmers involved”.
“This is a brand-new challenge for us. We just need to make sure we learn from the experiences we are having,” he said.
Ardern and O’Connor said they are no closer to finding out where the disease originated.
Claims it first came to New Zealand in 2014 are being investigated, O’Connor said, but added: “We firmly believe it was after 2015. We will be pursuing any claims farmers make but we have to investigate them in a scientific way.”
There is no time frame for when the investigation will be completed.
A comprehensive review of the Biosecurity Act 1993 is planned once the outbreak is under control. The silence was eerie. A crisp, clear late autumn day where sound drifts. But there was only the intermittent hum of a passing tractor, rolling up and down a neighbouring field; lush green pastures rolling down to the blue of the sea. No moos, no chewing.
The peace would be idyllic for Leo and Maite Bensegues if it wasn’t such a painful reminder.
Last month — six months after Mycoplasma bovis was detected on their sharemilking dairy farm at Morven in South Canterbury — their herd of 950 cows, along with another 200 younger beasts, were culled.
“The day we loaded up the last [animals], the truck and trailer going away . . . We don’t talk about it anymore. It’s not easy,” Leo Bensegues saidyesterday.
M. bovis is a bacterium that causes udder infections (mastitis), abortion, pneumonia and arthritis in cattle.
It does not infect humans and presents no food safety risk.
Nobody yet knows how it came into the country. There’s a top-level government probe under way but we may never find out.
The Bensegues don’t even know how it got to their farm, which they have milked for the last four years. Perhaps on the farm’s runoff area, or maybe it came on a livestock transporter.
Who knows.
But at least the decision to cull — and be compensated $2 million to buy new stock — was made and now they can get back to farming.
With the help of neighbours and workers, they’ve spent the last month cleaning up the property: cow shed, races, water troughs, machinery. “Everything had to be clean and shiny,” Leo Bensegues said.
Once the 60-day stand-down period lapses next month, they can bring the new stock back and start again. First, they need a holiday.
It’s been a long road.
“It’s been months since we got it and it’s been stress,” Leo Bensegues said.
“It’s not going to be easy for anyone. But we have to start again and we are ready for it.
“We’ve started to see the light after the tunnel.” He urged other farmers who fear an M. Bovis outbreak to work with the Ministry for Primary Industries, which has come under fire for its handling of the crisis.
“Work together rather than against,” Leo Bensegues said.
“Is life easy? No it’s not, it’s difficult. You just have to make it better. Honesty is going to go a long way. Me and my wife have been an example for that.”