“My guess is that the 500 cows have been butchered somewhere for illegal meat sales”, said Federated Farmers Dairy Industry chairperson Andrew Hoggard.
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Pennie Saunders, an administrator for the farm, told Stuff that they noticed last week that “things weren’t adding up as cows were coming back in”.
An Ashburton dairy farmer says locals are fearful their livestock will be stolen after as many as 500 cows are believed to have been taken from a nearby property. “If anyone has seen or heard anything suspicious we would love to hear from you. You could also contact the Ashburton police”.
Cows were spread around the farm over winter and brought back in as they neared calving, it was only when workers started counting the cattle that they noticed the missing herd.
The theft of 500 cows from the farm will cut milk production by up to 200,000kg.
The exact date remains unknown because there are more than 1,300 cows on the farm and it was not until they had a full count of the animals that they realised so many had gone missing.
Mr Leferink said it was not clear how the theft was carried out.
“All farmers should be checking their boundaries and fence lines on a regular basis”.
Hoggard said if the cows were stolen to on-sell to dairy farmers, it called into question the value of Nait, the National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme which requires all cattle and deer to be tagged with approved radio frequency identification device ear tags.
Leferink said farmers can sometimes be relaxed about security.
“Regardless of the size of your property, ideally stock numbers should be checked once a week”.
He said this was “pretty organised” and the theft would have moved the stock with a truck or walked them.
“Farmers should also be keeping an eye out for unexpected signs of herding near their boundary lines too”.
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In December 2015, more than 120 animals were taken from three separate farms in the South Canterbury area.
