Cubicle Dairy Farming
December 9th, 2009 at 9:00 am by David FarrarThe Herald has details of what is actually proposed:
However, a director of one of the companies behind the proposals says critics who call it “factory farming” have got it all wrong.
Richard Peacocke was reluctant to be interviewed while involved in environmental hearings related to the applications. However in statements, he said: “Factory farming implies that stock are unduly restricted.
“Each cow will have its own cubicle to stand, sit and sleep. The floor of the cubicle is a thick rubber pad and the cows are free to enter and leave the cubicles at will and wander around the balance of the shed and feed as they require.
“There will be clear roof panels to allow sun and light to enter. Additionally the cows will be free to wander out onto a large open air holding yard during fine weather and stand or sit in the sun.”
Mr Peacocke said the effluent would be collected and stored, with liquid waste watered down and spread on pasture at “very low rates”.
The proposal is for 18,000 cows that will live within the stables (including yard) for eight months a year.
I suspect this is an issue similar to battery hen farming. Around 80% of people will say they don’t like it and would be happy to pay more for free-range egss. But in reality free-range only has 10% of the market.
The bigger concern is if it could undermine the overall NZ dairy brand. This is why Fonterra is against.
Federated Farmers are supportive though, and say this model of farming s more environmentally friendly. I’d be interested in the details of that claim.
UPDATE: Press editorial has some details:
From an environmental point of view, the proposal has a lot to recommend it. Rather than having herds roaming free and leaving effluent to flow where it will, with the risk of pollution to waterways and aquifers, it would, while the cows were under cover at least, be collected for more orderly disposal. While the details of that disposal would have to be scrutinised closely, that is almost certain to be less damaging to the environment.
Related posts:
- Jeanette on Factory Farms
- The Government and Fonterra
- iPredict on dairy returns
- Do dairy farmers really only pay 3% tax?
December 9th, 2009 at 9:12 am
BAHAHAHAHAHA
so a couple of solutions to the global warming con are nuclear power and factory cow farming! the left are gonna love that
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 9:35 am
This protest is a load of crock. FFS cows don’t like it in the cold. They don’t have a coat of wool. Grassland farming is fine in warmer places and warmer seasons, but cows need shelter in the cold. That’s how its done in Europe, the US cheese state of Wisconsin, and so on. It’s downright cruelty to protest that cows in cold climates should not have shelter in winter. It gets bloody cold in winter in the McKenzie Basin. All protesters should be forced to spend a winter outside at Twizel before they can have their informed say.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
While it is environmentally better, both from the ecological integrity of our waterways and from lower nitrous oxide emissions, than having 18,000 more cows wandering around shitting and pissing in our streams, it is still 18,000 more cows burping methane.
And what will the 18,000 more cows eat? My guess is palm kernel.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Even if they don’t eat palm kernel they will have to buy in feed, that would impact a lot on the stock feed market in the area, so I can imagine other farmers could be concerned.
Fonterra will be concerned about marketing image, and also things like antibiotics, they are very strong on avoiding any sign of them in the milk. Indoor stock tend to need more drugs.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 10:26 am
I’m with Rod. If these guys want to put their own money up for this project then good on them. Given the location proposed for the farms I would have thought housing would be a must. Actually cows like standing indoors, mine do, if a gate is left open on a farm shed the bastards will be inside, fine or cold. But personally I see it as counter productive as our pasture based based grazing system is by far the most profitable and how this reduces emissions is beyond me. A lot of feed to be brought in and this must be harvested, planted, fertilized and fed out, all steps emit those “nasty” gases. There are also issues with animal health when cows are housed i.e. There have been problems with some American genetics imported into NZ. Their cows tend to spend long periods housed and thus are generally much bigger stock then ours. Over the years their stock breeds have become larger and as such many now require human intervention when calving, as the calf is usually very large. NZ breeds tend to be smaller and “fitter”as most have to fend for themselves, forage , walk long distances. When US genetics have being used on NZ cattle the cow usually requires vet intervention. I calved about 190 cows this year and had to assist about 3 where as someone using the imported genetics would have to intervene many more times
Maybe these guys know something I don’t given Fonterra has said they do not believe dairy prices are at all stable, so big gamble as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps they plan to set up own company, their bank managers must have good stock of Valium. Best of luck to them.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am
No worries. By the time consents are given the globe will have warmed enough for the McKenzie basin to grow lush pastures.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 10:48 am
This whole clean green brand crap is just another control mechanism. By raising “our” reputation will be hurt by XYZ people are trying to take control of someone else’s asset. Because “you” dont own the land or the dairy business. The facts of the matter is that most of New Zealand’s primary sector exports are commodities – WMP, SMP, block cheese, market pulp etc – there is no “clean green” premium to the commodity price. Tourists come here because its pretty and the people are friendly, I doubt they even know or care if we factory farm hens and pigs (and cows for that matter).
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am
FFS. Dairying is NOT farming, it is purely an industrial process. I bet Federated Farmers are sick of trying to support this group of so called “farmers” in their idiotic ideas.
How come all dairy industry spokemen have Dutch names – where are the Kiwi dairy farmers (real farmers) of old?
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I don’t care, I don’t grow cows.
It’s their money to do with how they wish.
They can grow them from seed in the vegetable patch for all I care.
What matters to me is how this plan will affect my lifestyle and my ability to eat.
As long as the plan does not require more rape of the water supplies that feed the SI East coast rivers and does not create massive buildings that pollute the landscape many of my customers visit NZ specifically to view let them go ahead.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 11:27 am
My free market philosophy says just let the chips fall but my feelings as a New Zealander are more than a little offended by the change to the landscape we are seeing in the McKenzie basin. I can live with the addition of wind turbines on hillsides and ridgelines as I personally see a sculpture like beauty in them particularly with the additional fact they are harnessing a renewable resource. I can live with some Irrigation of the dry desert like pasture of the McKenzie Plains although I lament the destruction of the iconic tussock landscape of my youth (destroyed by the rabbit plague). Green grass is easier on the eye than the bloody Hyracium that emerged after the rabbits were decimated.
Vote:Why when so much of the food requirements of the 18 000 cows will have to be trucked in can’t these setups, if that is the future of dairying, be located in lesser iconic landscapes closer to food suplies and factory.
p s I recently spent a few days in the downs behind Oamaru and the greening of those beautiful limestone rolling hills was easier on this old farmer’s eyes than the dry hills of the middle of last century.
Change is not always bad but I have fears for the results of this development in the fragile environment of the Mckenzie Country but I will keep my thoughts to these remarks
December 9th, 2009 at 11:28 am
That isn’t what Fonterra are saying. Perhaps they’re looking to the future more than the current position?
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
grumpy (40) Says:
December 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am
The buggers are all Freisians or Holsteins
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Sh!t if I was a cow living in that part of the world I’d want to be indoors out of the cold for 8 months of the year.
I agree with the Fonterra POV though. Whacking great barn farming operations right where all the tourist buses go to show people mountains and lakes etc. Great way to diminish NZ produce’s premium “all natural”/ “free range” etc brand – however fictitious it may have been.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Do people realise that many, if not most, NZ dairy goats are housed indoors for most of the year?
“Osment Dairy Goats herd is one of many indoor herds in New Zealand, although more labour intensive with feeding and bedding, this makes the goats are more productive. The goats live in a large loafing barn with access to outdoors for fresh air and sunlight only. They do not graze on pasture at all.”
“The benefits of indoor farming are greater control of the goats’ diet; they are fed fresh cut grass, silage, brewers’ grain and maize silage on the conveyor belts and always have good quality hay on their hay racks. When the weather is very wet and grass is not cut, other feeds are still able to be fed. When living outdoors goats tend not to go out and graze in very cold wet weather and this can cause a drop in milk production. Goats also do not have a natural worm resistance and require regular drenching in the summer months to keep parasites at bay.”
http://www.rd1.com/web/content?in_section=10&in_item=908&in_page=5408
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
@ Andrew W assuming those goats are in smaller numbers and on what could reasonably called lifestyle situations in the main not EIGHTEEN THOUSAND COWS in an iconic fragile environment on our main tourist route. Your comments are good but don’t allay my innermost misgivings on this topic.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
gravedodger, your comment is puzzling.
Vote:I’m talking about commercial goat farms, many with hundreds of goats, not lifestyle farms.
The number of animals is surely irrelevant, what should be important is whether or not the husbandry standard is acceptable.
My comment was not intended to allay your innermost misgivings, it was to point out that many examples of housing of traditionally pasture fed dairy animals for most of the year already exists in NZ.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Would you invest in this? It just seems an inherently high cost means of production.
More labour instensive, higher capital requirement in barns & such and is very dependent on feed costs; offset i guess by economy of scale and the low cost of land in Mckenzie Country.
The only places it “works” are the USA and EU where the farmers exist inside some large protected market.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Would you invest in this? It just seems an inherently high cost means of production.
It does, yes. Though…
Federated Farmers said “so-called factory farming” cut costs,
So…er yup i dunno.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
“Would you invest in this?”
No, I’m with SSB on the economics of it, the intensification of dairy farming can be very profitable when the payout is high and costs are stable, this sort of operation can look good on paper because the initial capital investment is lower than that of buying good dairy land at $40,000/ha, but a relatively small drop in the payout can wipe out a fairly narrow profit margin, and dairy payouts in NZ are, relative to most other things, very volatile.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I hope this is not thread jacking BUT;
Vote:Has anybody heard how much in imputations credits will be included in the new Fonterra dry share dividends?
I have read screeds of paper and press releases and internet guff on their new capital structure but, in my opinion, the most important bit is imputation credits and they have never ever been mentioned, and I cannot get anybody at Fonterra who has ever heard of imputation credits to return my calls.
December 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
And what will the 18,000 more cows eat? My guess is palm kernel.
Isn’t there irrigation for something or other?
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
What is it with this Townie “factory farming” bullshit from the Greens.
Dairy farming always has been and in the forseeable future will be, all about turning sunshine into money. The fact that the intermediate steps are grass and lactating bovine ruminants is purely an efficiency choice on the part of the farmer. he could choose grass and ovines or grass and porcines or small seeds or edible crops but he doesn’t. Yes by God, farming is a business. …. Quelle Horreur (spp?) quick someone tell Norman and Kedgely that it is not about cuddly animals with names like Flossie and Bossie and warm hands on cold mornings.
Bah Humbug
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Didn’t mean to be puzzling Andrew W but my knowledge of present day goat farming is limited/non existent so My apologies. I guess I was coming from a point where the feed and excrement of 18 000 cows would equate to say 150 000/ 200 000 goats and if there are concentrations of those sort of numbers I am interested to know where. Another point of difference from my background of sheep and beef farming, the excrement from sheep is drier and more easily contained and I extrapolated that knowledge to goats. My only experience of goats is hunting and they can be too clever too often.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Tourists may be upset at the sight of large buildings, come on they are hardly going to paint them Warehouse red are they ?
Vote:Since they will need irrigation supplies for the cows and what feed they can grow, trees will do nicely to shield the sight of the sheds from tender tourist eyes.
The Mckenzie Country gets bloody cold in winter, a real bone chiller at times, so yes cover is needed.
With every bugger from the tourist industry sticking their oar in they are hardly likely to jampack the sheds are they ?
Maybe I’m different, but I would prefer the McKenzie to be green rather than an off brown.
December 9th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Yeah, because the alternative wuld be to have these kind of… ditch things… which kind of… collected the run off… and sent it where it could be filtered or otherwise controlled. We could even call them “drains”…
In my experience farmers are concerned about the environment (and I was ralking to them back in the 80s, before environmentalism became mainstream). They realise that damaging the environment means damaging their asset, sooner or later. But they also have to keep a farm profitable, on often very small margins.
If a fraction of the money spent on “tourism” promotions like hip hop tours over the last 20 years or so had been spent on assisting farmers to institute effective (but often expensive) environmental protection measures and conversion to more sustainable farming practices, we wouldn’t be building indoor lavatories for cows.
Vote:December 9th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I’ve recently moved from dairying (cows, not goats!) to Beef and dairy grazing, spreading the effluent wouldn’t be a major problem, you’re moving far less fluid than you do irrigating pasture, the biggest cost I see (after irrigation), is the harvesting and transporting of feed to the cattle for most of the year, that cost, I’d guess would be nearly $1/kgMS, (at 6 cents?/kgDM)
Vote:Though you’d get quite a bit of that back in improved production.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I just wonder, has anyone ever asked the tourists why they come here?
We are all told that it’s because it clean, green etc.
But I would put a bob or two on it that it’s cause we are cheap! and bloody beautiful.
I have travelled extensively and when ever I said I came from NZ I always got ” what a beautiful country you come from” not what a clean green country you have.
Lets get real, we need to lift our game production wise in a whole heap of areas and arrest this downward spiral we are in. get ourselves back amongst the more wealthy and productive countries before we join the third world. Plus make a country that our young enterprising people want to live in to prevent them form heading offshore for the bigger brighter world.
Vote: