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Cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis might not be making national headlines any more, but it is affecting local farms more than ever, with four confirmed cases in Northland and dozens of properties with restricted stock movements.
Dairy farmer Brian Mason’s Tomarata farm was placed under a Notice of Direction for six weeks in August and he says the experience brought home the pressure farmers continue to face.
“I’ve been through it, and it’s not a nice place to be,” he says. “It was picked up from a milk sample in late autumn, which was misleading. But we still had to go through the whole blood testing regime and all the pressure that goes with that.”
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) issues a Notice of Direction when it believes that taking stock off a property could spread M bovis, meaning Brian could not move any cattle off his farm from mid-August to the end of September.
Brian says one of the biggest issues is the mental stresses the spread of M. bovis and the government eradication programme is having on farmers. He says that even though it is two years since the disease was first detected in New Zealand, there is still a stigma attached to it and a reluctance to discuss any problems.
“It has got worse in this area, it’s very much in our region,” he says. “But nobody says anything. We got out and told people we were under notice, but generally this is the problem … it has a huge mental effect on people.”
Brian, who is also chairman of the Landowners and Contractors Protection Association, has organised a public meeting to discuss the progress, consequences and effects of M. bovis in rural communities in Wellsford next month. MPI’s communications and liaison manager Joe Stockman will be guest speaker.
“The meeting will address how they think they’re going to eradicate it, as well as the testing procedure, because tests have changed quite a bit since it started,” Brian says.
There will also be a question and answer session. The meeting will take place on Thursday, December 5 in the Wellsford Memorial RSA at 1 Olympus Road, starting at 7pm. All welcome.
Info: Brian Mason on 423 7187 (evenings)
