Vol 16 No 43, November 6, 2017
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It’s a nightmare T
Annette Scott annette.scott@nzx.com
HE cost of Mycoplasma bovis could be a $50 million to $100m hit to Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen’s business, that’s if it continues longer term. But that doesn’t count the cost of the heartache to them, their workers and community. When they notified animal health issues in their dairy herd they believed they were doing the right thing for their people, their community, the Government and the wider dairy industry. Now they are not so sure. “In fact, to date, the way this response has been managed we feel has caused us and many other farmers in the district to be alienated and if the same circumstances were to recur we would have to seriously reconsider doing what we did,” Aad van Leeuwen said. “It’s been a three-month nightmare and it’s far from over yet,” the couple said. The van Leeuwen Dairy Group took in 16 South Canterbury farms in a mix of traditional grass farming and indoor robotic milking. In July one of the group’s farms was identified with the notifiable disease Mycoplasma bovis that initiated a full Ministry for Primary Industries biosecurity response. While pretty much the rest of
BIG LOSS: Economic analysis has Wilma and Aad van Leeuwen facing a business loss of up to $100m as a result of the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. Photo: Annette Scott
the world already had it, it was a first for NZ. Looking back over the three months as several of the group’s farms now face eradication of all cows, the van Leeuwens harbour much disappointment over how the response was managed. “It has been horrendous on us, our staff and our contract and sharemilkers. “The impact has been
devastating on all our people and for many it will mean the end forever – their businesses and their reputations have been destroyed.” The near 90 staff had just had enough and being associated with a group farm had tainted them for the future, van Leeuwen said. “And it shouldn’t be. There’s no need for it. There is a dirty stigma attached to it all now. People talk
like it’s a plague. It’s nothing like that at all.” He laid blame on an overdose of misinformation and people not knowing what they were doing. He was critical of MPI’s response time. “It took them five days to find out where our farms were and 10 days to put their feet on the first infected farm. “We had the cows well sorted
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and separated by then – thank God this was not foot and mouth,” he said. “We were very disappointed with comments from the media that targeted the robots (indoor system). We asked MPI, through the media, to clear this up and they never did. Their statements made it worse at the last public meeting. “To get it right the initial outbreak was over just three farms, two outdoor grass and one what we call in-out, in over autumn and winter for shelter,” van Leeuwen said. The outbreak on the first infected property was the inout property but the cows were outside calving at the time. It linked to two further farms, both outdoors. But, ironically, as MPI put key emphasis on doing 39,000 blood tests, the blood testing and its lengthy process had been deemed unreliable, van Leeuwen said. “MPI indicated that to us. They have admitted what we know too from our research of other countries that bulk milk testing is the best testing. “That has caused a massive issue for us as we have a lot of young stock obviously not milking so blood tested and it’s unreliable.” The van Leeuwens had asked MPI why more bulk milk testing was not being done, not just on their herds but also regionally and nationwide. “We haven’t had an answer but we believe there seems to be no
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