McVitty's nine farms in receivership

Six dairy farms and three sheep and beef farms owned by a Manawatu farmer who was once fined for shooting a cow dead while an animal welfare investigator was checking its condition, have been placed in receivership.

Four dairy farms at Patoka, Hawke's Bay, and dairy farms and sheep and beef farms in Manawatu owned by Robert McVitty are under the control of receivers Maurice Noone and John Fisk, of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr Noone, who was called in by the principal creditor, BNZ, said yesterday that the intention was to complete conversions on two of the dairy farms at Patoka and bring them to full production to recover the debts.

The farms were part of a big conversion that had run out of capital. "They've been 90 per cent completed."

He said preliminary discussions with the bank had given him good grounds to believe the funding needed to finish the conversions would be available.

He could not say how much money was needed. "We're still working through the budgets."

Also, he was "not at liberty" to divulge the amount of debt owed by the two companies that owned the farms.

It was "business as usual" at the farms and the receivers were prepared to run the farms for as long as it took to get them back to profitability – it would be more than a year and possibly as long as three years. A

ll employees had been assured their jobs were safe.

"This is not a liquidation and carve-up," he said.

Mr McVitty could not be contacted yesterday.

He was fined $1000 in the Palmerston North District Court in 2008 for shooting a cow in front of an Agriculture and Forestry Ministry investigator.

The court was told the investigator noticed a cow being transported unrestrained in a trailer, with its head hanging near oncoming traffic.

When the investigator spoke to farm workers, an angry McVitty appeared with a shotgun. He strode past the investigator and, ignoring his protests, shot the cow.

He told the investigator: "It's dead now. It's all over and you can get off my property. You're trespassing."

- © Fairfax NZ News