It was a real eye-opener on the fact we are about to lose an industry that deals with the removal of many a post-mortem animal, especially in the calving and lambing seasons.
This industry is important to the future of the primary sector because it provides a vital service to many farmers who, because of supply contracts and environmental plans, cannot bury dead animals on-farm.
We now have a perfect storm for the Wallace Group because the major markets for the leather and tallow products made from the processing of casualty stock collapsed after covid-19 and many other countries that produce these products have flooded the market
Wallace Group North Island plants and business have been bought by a group of freezing works to secure the future of the rendering plants necessary to convert the waste they have from processing to a much-reduced volume, which can be made into blood and bone or tallow used to produce stock food pellets and other products.
In the South Island the company is still trading as Wallace Group and is basically the last man standing in an industry that has had many players in its history.
It is still making available its pick-up service at what will now become a huge cost to farmers. Only half of Canterbury farmers are using the service, resulting in about 18,000 tonnes of dead animals being picked up. The rest are either being buried or composted.
The new charges will be $85/cow and $12/calf. Again, because of the collapse of the markets, there is no point processing these animals so they will be taken to an animal dump in North Canterbury.
Remember, that’s a gross weight of 18,000 tonnes so that’s a huge amount of previously processed animals now being dumped.
It’s also the loss of some 120-plus workers used to skin out the deceased animals and some 60-odd contractors who pick up from the farm gate.
The underlying issue here is the farmers being notified of these new charges say they will cease to use the service.
I have it from Wallace Group the new charges are just the cost of pick-up and delivery to North Canterbury. If more farmers use the service and the pick-up costs become lower or the offshore market picks up the charges being implemented will be reduced.
This failing industry raises some huge environmental and social licence issues for farmers.
Be it lamb, calf or cow, the fallout of burying these animals on-farm and the chance of leaching into the soil plus the effect on supplier contracts will create a negative result for both farmers and processors because many contracts state on-farm burial is not acceptable, driven by overseas market requirements.
Recently, here in Canterbury, we had a helicopter hovering over cattle on crop breaks after rain. It was not the regional council so it possibly was an environmental group. Imagine the goldmine of photos they could publish of on-farm burial holes and the subsequent fallout farming would face if most farmers stop using the removal service and simply put their dead stock in a hole. That includes all dead stock and the pressure on bobby calf prices raises another issue.
It has been raised in Parliament at a select committee and with Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The result has been minimal with the term industry problem being used. It is an industry problem, perception of how we farm is what sells our products.
Wallace Group will not provide this service any longer if it runs the risk of losing money or farmers decide it costs too much. Covid-19 has accelerated this issue that has perhaps been festering away under the surface for some time.
I hope by raising this issue industry groups will come together to prioritise the importance of deceased stock removal on our social and environmental licence before those who regulate and or scrutinise farming impose their opinions on farmers. The burning and burial of stock on-farm in today’s world to coin a phrase will become ashes in our mouth.
