NZ's biggest dairy farm allows calves to starve to death

The following video obtained by www.interest.co.nz shows dozens of calves starving to death at Crafar Farms' Benneydale property between Tokoroa and Te Kuiti earlier this month. Poor management and the pressures of massive debts obtained during rapid expansion meant this farm was so poorly managed that none of the staff trained calves to drink milk, allowing them to die of dehydration in a muddy pen.

MAF's inspectors were called in to this farm many times yet it was allowed to keep operating. Days after this video was taken MAF inspectors visited the property and destroyed many of the calves, yet has said this was just a management issue and not worthy of prosecution.

Farm owner Allan Crafar was on the Fonterra Shareholders council for 6 years, while Westpac, Rabobank and PGG Wrightson Finance lent Crafar Farms around NZ$200 million to buy more than 20 such factory farms despite numerous prosecutions for dirty dairying. Crafar Farms is now trying to sell its farms because it cannot service its debts, which are now worth more than the land.

Questions arising from this case include:
Why did MAF allow this farm to continue operating despite repeated warnings?
Why has MAF not prosecuted Crafar Farms for animal neglect?
Why did Fonterra continue to accept milk from these farms despite dirty dairying prosecutions and industry talk about bad management?
Why was Allan Crafar allowed to stay on Fonterra's most senior representative body for 6 years?
What controls were in place at Westpac, Rabobank and PGG Wrightson Finance to investigate the financial and environmental sustainability of this farming operation, which is New Zealand's biggest privately-owned dairying group and produces 0.5% of Fonterra's total output.
How can New Zealand continue to advertise itself as 100% pure after the dairying boom has created so many factory farms that poison the land and harm animals.
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Update 2011
As a direct result of this video and subsequent publicity, the Crafar Farms empire lost support of its bankers and was placed in receivership, to be broken up and sold to others.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• 90 at 9
• bernard hickey
• crafar

[pelorus2008]

Hickey,you are such a tosser.

[Reseke01]

@oliver69cork All NZ farmers think the same as us.. They can´t be blamed for the mistake one Idiot makes.

[FrancoFerrua]

This is sick. All of you sadist bastards go to hell.

[oliver69cork]

The world should`nt deal with new zealand dairy produce until you get your act together,we in the EU have good welfare and enviromental standards-this is savagery not farming but the farmer will suffer yet for this i hope.I`m ashamed to be a dairy with evil doing like this going on.

[madalene2012]

@slycef ,shame on you, you are ruining yourself with your own bad vibresas a clearly VIOLENT person I wouldnt trust a little bit to be near! Poor innocent animals in hands like this aggressive one, makes me scared and..concern for the nice people who dont need to react like gang-boys!

[slycef]

haha do you know what is funny. Majority of you people here all say things like "let the bastard starve" and "kill the cunt!". isnt killing a human worse than an animal? you are trying to solve problems by violence haha u make me sick.

[slycef]

@madalene2012 fuck off ya townie cunt. its a handful of farmers ruining it for the rest of us.

[cartyfiona]

Not sure what this has to do with the banks choices at the end of the day banks deal with money not cows. Also I feed calves and work in a dairy every day and I take pride in my work and find that good healthy calves will feed then turn to their mate and look for more so maybe not a good example on that one. Also the calves here do not look like a good example of calf care but FFS get some knowledge and get on a farm before you try the propaganda road you might get more people to see your point

[nzer100]

This is a poor representaion of the majority of farmers. Also this reporter has very limited agricultural knowledge. You can't simply shut down a farm, even healthy calves try to drink off each other (and the people feeding them!) fonterra should be kept well out of it, MAF should have taken a stronger stance this was a poor managment issue. Large farms are more efficient and it is disappointing to see this one run poorly.

[kitkat6319]

obviously a rookie farmer. don't let this video represent the nz dairy industry. the majority of nz dairy farmers are top operators who care about their animals. and calves always bunt other calves even if they are hungry or not. this video blows a lot of things out of proportion.