Farmers who fought to save pregnant cows shocked at mass Mycoplasma bovis cull - 'I can't believe they would kill that many'

May 28, 2018

For Lynda Burgess the Government's action plan has come as very sad news.

Today's Mycoplasma bovis eradication announcement is an unwelcome one for the Prebbleton farmers, who fought to save the lives of their heavily pregnant cows until after the decision was made.

Gary and Lynda Burgess say killing the cows on the same day a decision might be made on how to manage the cow disease is barbaric.

Last week Lynda and Gary Burgess shared their anguish with 1 NEWS about the plight of their herd of heavily pregnant first time mothers and their unborn calves.

Today, they found out that tomorrow morning would be the last time they would feed the herd.

Ninety heifers owned by Gary Burgess have a one-day reprieve, having been destined for the works on the same day MPI announced a decision on an M bovis plan.

"I can't believe they would kill that many. That's huge for the nation," Ms Burgess said.

While Mr Burgess isn't happy about it, he's resigned to the fate of his animals.

"I empathise fully with those farmers going through the pain of losing their herds," Jacinda Ardern said today.

"That's a bit of a shocker, I thought they might have gone for a more planned approach.

"Lock down farms and stop movement, but if that's what they're doing then that's what they're doing. Got to go with it, that's the law," he told 1 NEWS.

Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said despite other countries not being able to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis, factors such as location and timing mean New Zealand is in a different position to combat the cow disease.

"Our borders in particular make it possible, we do believe we are taking it on at a point that it is possible to eradicate, more than 99 per cent of farms do not have it, we want to protect them from having it."

The Government chose today the option of phased eradication to attempt to combat Mycoplasma bovis, at a cost of $886 million over the next decade.

It is anticipated the phased eradication programme will mean 126,000 animals will be culled (Around 26,000 cows are currently in the process of being culled). Most of those animals will be killed over the first one to two years.

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