Greens 'poorly informed' on cubicle dairying

Southdown Holdings director Richard Peacocke has called the Green Party "poorly informed" in its opposition to a wide-scale dairying proposal in the Upper Waitaki.

"It would seem apparent that there is little understanding of the applications, highlighted by the number of submissions focusing on supposedly negative animal welfare issues regarding housing of cows in stables," Mr Peacocke told the Timaru Herald by email.

"There has been a lot of interest and some hysteria [due to] some poorly informed and emotive comments from the Green Party using mis-truths like "factory farming" to stir up opposition.

"I understand less than 4 per cent of submitters have read the evidence contained in the detailed applications.

"We understand most submissions appear to be emotive and focusing on animal health and welfare."

Under the proposals, the cows would live in cubicle stables 24 hours a day from March to October, and for 12 hours a day from November to February.

Mr Peacocke said the housing of cows in stables in the Mackenzie Basin during winters was best practice from an environmental sustainability perspective.

He said the risk of pollution of waterways and lakes would be eliminated by storing effluent and "limiting its discharge to the growing season and only then in a highly controlled manner".

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman has previously expressed concerns about the effects the proposals would have on the "fragile" environment, and to New Zealand's overseas image.

He said while the effluent management plans could be sound, their sheer scale meant it was "inevitable" that some nitrate leaching would occur.

"When you're dealing with operations of this scale, including 1.7 million litre storage-capacity effluent ponds, then you are going to have after-effects on the environment."

- © Fairfax NZ News