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Northland currently has the second highest rate of Mycoplasma bovis infection in the country, largely due to farmers continuing to buy beef calves from the South Island, a public meeting in Wellsford heard last month.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) spokesman Joe Stockman told more than 50 farmers that the region was disproportionately affected by the disease, second only to Ashburton. There are currently five infected properties, 55 under Notice of Direction (NoD) stock movement restrictions and 54 undergoing testing. A further 12 farms have already been infected and had their herds culled.
“A number of problems built up, we got behind on testing animals. Northland is disproportionately affected by that,” Mr Stockman said.
“I think it will be around 12 to 18 months before we stop finding new infected properties, because we’re still seeing movement of beef bulls up from Southland.”
Several farmers questioned why MPI was not doing more to restrict movement of cattle from the South Island. However, Mr Stockman said MPI couldn’t tell farmers how to run their businesses and could only restrict movements if they had “reasonable suspicion” of infection.
“If farmers want to buy bulls from Southland, it’s up to them,” he said. “If you put such a heavy restriction on the South Island, we’d be required to notify all of our trading partners and they would end the import of our beef. The economic effects would be devastating. It would mean billions of dollars of economic loss.”
Overall, Mr Stockman said the programme to eradicate M bovis was going well, however, and the MPI, working with Beef + Lamb NZ and Dairy NZ, was making good progress in testing efficacy and reducing the spread of the disease.
“It’s still out there and it’s still spreading, so if you’re buying stock, you could be spreading it, and you still need to take good biosecurity measures,” he said. “But it’s pretty clear the direction we’re heading in.”
Mr Stockman said huge efforts were also being made to reduce the impact of the disease on farmers, with better testing, improved support and faster compensation payouts.
“Reducing the impact on farmers is top of mind every single day,” he said. “It’s an incredibly stressful time. The disease itself is not particularly problematic, but the process of getting rid of it is very hard on farmers.”
The meeting was organised by the Landowners and Contractors Protection Association. Chairman Brian Mason, whose Tomarata dairy farm was placed under NoD earlier this year after a false positive milk test, said it was good to hear details of the efforts being made to get rid of the disease and improve processes.
“When that phone rings and you get that call, your whole life goes into orbit. It’s six weeks of complete uncertainty,” he said. “I know there are some in this room under NoD now and others who have been there and more will go there yet, so it’s all about supporting each other.”
