With dairy cow prices not much higher than boners sent to the meat works it would be an opportune time to slaughter them, he believes.
With no re-infection the North Island could be declared TB-free, bringing new marketing opportunities for agricultural products.
“If the North Island is clear that’s got to be a plus for us as far as trade overseas. And there would be more money to spend on vector control in the South Island.”
While there would be financial pain for farmers with infected animals, it would be minor compared with the big difference in prices cows were reaching before the dairy downturn and those going to slaughter.
And stock with similar Breeding Worth and Production Worth to those killed should be available to buy because replacement stock could be sourced at a much lower cost than previously.
“Farmers see the merits of it,” he said.
The Auckland executive supported his proposal which he then took to the Auckland TB-free committee, on which he sits, where it was voted for unanimously.
Committee chairman Keith Kelly has already gained support from his counterpart in Northland and is put it to a regular meeting of the 15 chairmen from around the country to be held in Wellington this week.
He sees depopulation as the best way of dealing with herds where the disease keeps spreading among a small number of herds.
If northern Tb herds were depopulated it would then be easy to control animals coming from the South Island.
“For beef farmers it’s a clear-cut issue but for dairy farmers there’s the issue of the loss of the herds’ breeding values,” he said.
Parris points to the example of the deer industry, where no compensation was available and farmers had been much more vigilant about the status of stock they bought.
“They cleaned up their own act from day one and were much more cautious where they got stock from,” he said.
He and wife Raewyn had now sold their 180-hectare Kaipara Hills farm where they ran 800 ewes and replacements along with 60 breeding cows and 100 red deer.
They live on a small block and he manages a neighbour’s 200ha property carrying 110 cattle and 300 ewes.
“Australia started their TB control programme in 1970, around the same time as New Zealand,” he said.
“But they were TB-free by 1999. The way we’re going it’s going to take us until 2026.”
The current TB plan, which came into effect at the start of the month, had the key objectives of high confidence the disease was gone in livestock by 2026, from possums in 2040 and biological eradication of TB from the country by 2055.
OSPRI said there were 10 infected herds in the North Island totalling more than 5000 animals and there were many other factors to consider when valuing animals rather than just their meat values at slaughter.
As TB had not been eradicated from wildlife in large parts of the central North Island, depopulation would give an assurance of zero infected herds for only one day.
The risk would remain of TB-infected wildlife coming into contact with domestic stock, meaning funding wouldn’t be able to be redirected to the South Island.
OSPRI pays 65 % of fair market value for reactor animals and any proposal to depopulate a herd would have to have the agreement of OSPRI industry shareholders DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb and the deer industry.
