Bob Kerridge: South Island tragedy highlights animals' plight

Science is working on identifying ewes that make the best mothers - for better survival numbers. Photo / Alan Gibson

The awesome power of nature, such as we have experienced in the past few weeks, illustrates both our vulnerability and our impotence.

The citizens of Christchurch have experienced the devastating impact of natural forces in the destruction of their homes and their history. Our hearts continue to go out to them.

And yet, on a scale much larger in terms of the cost of life, we have now witnessed another disaster, in Southland and South Otago.

Hundreds of thousands of newborn lambs and adult sheep have suffered and perished in snow drifts, icy rain, hail and biting winds, leaving farmers facing untold heartache and an estimated $50 million worth of financial loss.

It's hard not to admire the dogged determination of those members of the farming community who worked around the clock, day after day, trying to rescue as many of their sheep as possible or to empathise with their despair at their absolute helplessness in the face of nature.

But news footage of lamb carcasses piled high or of sheep bereft and freezing on snow-covered hillsides has also helped generate a rash of critical and even hostile comment concerning farming practices that, according to the critics, helped feed this disaster.

Farmers, it's been suggested, don't provide adequate shelter for their animals, tend to over-stock and arrange for lambing to occur at a time of year when, particularly in the lower South Island, the lambs will be vulnerable to severe and often fatal storms and cold snaps. However, we need to be careful about criticism when the catastrophe that's unfolded in Southland and South Otago is at such an extreme level

After all, this was the worst series of storms in at least a generation, with wind chills of minus 10C and more than 100mm of rain, as well as snow drifts such as have not been experienced since the early 1970s. In these circumstances, no amount of preparation could have prevented such huge livestock losses, of a scale which no farmer would wish for in their lifetime.

Moreover, as Federated Farmers has reminded us, many farmers had actually pushed lambing back from late winter into early spring in order to reduce the level of climatic risk, only to experience far worse weather and vastly more difficult conditions at this later point in time.

But, although it's wholly mistaken to blame the farming community for the disaster, there's no room for complacency over the numbers of sheep perishing, not just in exceptional storms such as occurred last week, but in the cold snaps and freezing downpours which annually interrupt the arrival of spring.

We need to look at ways we can reduce the incidence of the weather-related animal suffering and death, both for the sake of the animals themselves and also for the sake of our reputation as a responsible and humane food-producing nation.

Many of our overseas markets, particularly but not exclusively in Europe, are highly sensitised to issues of animal cruelty. Given the reach and inter-connectiveness of today's media, it's highly probable that the grizzly New Zealand footage of piles of animal carcasses and foetuses might appear on a prime time news slot in a key market, doing irreparable damage to our export trade.

What can we do to reduce our vulnerability to such forces of nature that can strike at any time?

There are those who argue that New Zealand's sheep should be housed indoors during winter and early spring, as they are in some European countries. But this might well make large-scale sheep rearing unsustainable in New Zealand conditions and, according to many animal experts, would heighten disease risks and otherwise undermine sheep health.

A less radical suggestion is to increase the shelter available during cold snaps. Many Southland and Otago farmers have already planted extensive shelters and windbreaks and there is certainly a case to be made for more such plantings. However, there's no guarantee that pregnant ewes or mothers with newborn lambs will actually take advantage of the shelter available.

Here, however, science may yet provide us with some cause for hope. Over the past few years, our understanding of sheep genetics has increased dramatically, with some of the key work in uncovering the species' genome performed by New Zealand scientists, such as those at AgResearch Invermay and the University of Otago.

AgResearch experts are now looking at ways of identifying the ewes that will make good mothers, including those most likely to look after their young and take advantage of shelter.

Eventually, this could have a significant impact on the numbers of sheep surviving adverse weather conditions. Meanwhile, though most farmers can be relied on to do their best for their animals, our SPCA inspectors recurrently come across cases of over-stocking, inadequate emergency feed and lack of shelter.

The same goes for the practice of inducing calves [causing calves to be born prematurely as a means of starting milk production from the mother], which has rightly produced anger over recent days. While such practices exist, animals will suffer, whether the conditions are extreme or not.

What's needed is for best practice in animal welfare to become the invariable rule. The SPCA will be a helpful and constructive partner in working towards this highly desirable goal.