Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Farmers want clarity

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The effects of the Mycoplasma bovis response are being felt by a Cambridge farmer whose farms are under Primary Industries Ministry Notice of Direction.
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“We are under movement restriction with three properties.

“We were told we were suspect and slapped under restriction on March 5.”

MPI said there are no properties under Restricted Place Notice in the North Island but there might be some on Notices of Direction, effectively a stock movement restriction.

“I don’t believe we are the only ones,” the farmer said.

On January 14 MPI told him he was a trace property through stock he bought from a Winton, Southland, farm two years earlier.

The Winton property was identified as an infected property in mid December.

“I expected from that January 14 phone call that I would have follow-up straight away but that follow-up call took six weeks, until March 5.

On Monday MPI said more than 22,000 cattle from 22 infected South Island properties will be culled by May. Another six had no cattle on them and 48 properties were under MPI response restrictions.

Piecing together how the disease got here is a difficult jigsaw and the flurry of action and lack of detail in information this past week is fueling the rumour mill, Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis said.

He expects it won’t be too long before the Waikato dairy community’s worst fears are realised.

“It just shows MPI still has a lot of work to do on their processes yet.

“The secrets are not all out yet,” Lewis said. 

MPI on Wednesday released reports by a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and an internal report examining potential entry routes.

The TAG report makes reference to possible legal breaches in relation to how the disease entered the country. The references have largely been redacted, to obscure or remove sensitive information.

Sections blocked out relate to veterinary medicines and biological products.

The report also raises a red flag about M bovis infection from imported frozen semen and embryos and recommends research funding to better understand the transmission risk. 

MPI said it couldn’t release the report until the legal breaches matters were sufficiently examined by compliance investigators.

That happened on Tuesday when warranted MPI officers simultaneously raided three properties, one in the North Island and two in the South Island. They “related to potential breaches of legislation related to the M bovis response,” it said. 

The breach was believed to likely be of the Biosecurity Act in regards to importing genetic material that included semen, embryos or drugs.

MPI compliance investigations manager Gary Orr said the outcome of the searches would be communicated to farmers as soon as MPI was able to provide that information.

Lewis said farmers were again left hanging.

“There’s still missing bits.

“That fuels the rumour mill and has left people gossiping and speculating and that does a lot of damage,” Lewis said.

“What has happened in the past week around warranted searches, announcements to cull and the release of the reports has not been on the fly.

“If they want farmers to co-operate we need transparency – ongoing surface information, lack of detail and reports blacked out, is not transparency.”

As for the culling of all cattle on all infected properties Lewis said those farmers needed certainty they would get immediate compensation to enable to them to get their businesses back up and running by June 1.

“Farmers have always said they want eradication if that was at all feasible,” Lewis said.

“But we need certainty on all fronts for all decisions made and I am not so certain we have that certainty.

“Without knowing the source there’s no certainty around eradication no matter what number of cows are culled.”

Lewis urged MPI to give farmers destined to have their herds culled a written letter of certainty confirming they will get compensation and be in a position to buy new herds by June 1.

Lewis expects there will be good numbers of cows available but timing of the compensation will be critical for farmers to be in a position to repopulate, especially for buying whole herds as they come on the market.

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