The Future Of Dairy Farming?
NEW ZEALAND - Resource consent applications have been lodged with Environment Canterbury for what the Green Party call 'factory-farming' in the the MacKenzie Basin.
7 December 2009
2 minute read
According to the Green Party, three companies plan to establish 16 new farms with nearly 18,000 cows in the area. All cows will be housed in cubicles for eight months of the year, and for the remaining four months will be allowed access to grass for 12 hours of the day.
The applications are been supported by Federate Farmers, who believe that farmers have the right to submit these applications. Don Nicolson, Federated Farmers President, believes that tighter regional council and national rules may force other farmers to consider this type of farming.
He confirmed that at the moment these were only applications and as such, have to go through the full resource consent process. However, the Green Party believe that allowing these 'factory farms' to operate would severely affect the clean, green international brand that New Zealand producers pride themselves on and could put New Zealand products at a competitive disadvantage.
Mr Nicolson said: "The Greens can’t have it both ways. They wish to see pastoral free-range farming controlled, yet oppose applications that are fairly much as controlled as you can get.
“I haven’t seen the applications myself but people should be aware the European Union (EU) classes ‘organic production friendly’ milk as coming from livestock being on pasture for a minimum of 150 days each year. I understand this application is for around 121 days.
“So while the applications would not satisfy the EU’s rules for ‘organic production friendly’, they’re not far off the mark.
“EU regulations for ‘loose housed’ dairy cows require each animal to have at least 6 m² of indoor and 4.5 m² of outdoor space. Cows must also have easy access to feed and water, ventilation, freedom to move and, of course, access to pasture.
“This style of closed cycle farming means effluent can, for example, be put into bio-digesters with the resulting biogas used to power the farm offsetting farm animal emissions. Surplus energy could be sold into the national grid and all the while, nutrient loss is minimised.
“This is what the emissions trading scheme is meant to encourage, isn’t it? "
The Green Party said: "These factory farms in the Mackenzie Basin will produce the same amount of effluent as a city of 270,000 people and it is especially worrying that the director of one of these companies has a history of effluent discharge breaches."
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