The welfare of calves in the dairy industry is back in the spotlight after New Zealand milk giant Fonterra ordered its farmer-suppliers to stop killing very young calves, after the cooperative changed its contracts.
From June this year, Kiwi suppliers will be banned from euthanising bobby calves on farm, and instead will have to raise them to an older age or send them to an abattoir.
Bobby calves are animals under the age of 30 days, and are usually male calves which are not needed by dairy operations to replace the exiting herd.
Disposing of such young calves has been a contentious issue for the industry, with animal welfare groups and consumers expressing concern about the practice.
While the Australian-arm of Fonterra said there was no intention to mandate a similar ban as its New Zealand parent company, it has raised questions about whether the local industry was doing enough to meet shopper’s expectations.
Anne Douglas, group director of Farm Source New Zealand said the dairy industry couldn't afford to be complacent, as consumers around the world became more interested in how their food was produced.
"Other countries and companies have already introduced policies and assurance schemes that provide consumer guarantees about the on-farm treatment of calves. It’s important Fonterra addresses this complex issue to ensure we remain competitive in market," Ms Douglas said.
"We have been working closely with meat processors, transporters, pet-food processors and other industry groups for many months on changes which can be made to support farmers [to] meet the new Terms of Supply.
"We’re also investing in R&D and exploring long-term solutions such as dairy-beef partnerships and opportunities."
Impossible deadline
Kirsti Keightley has worked in the dairy industry in New Zealand and Australia for over 30 years, growing up across the ditch before moving to south-west Victoria to Port Fairy Beef.
Ms Keightley raises dairy-beef on her farm in a bid to improve animal welfare, but says the mid-year deadline will be impossible for most New Zealand farmers to meet.
"What [Fonterra New Zealand] are saying is the calves have to have a useful life, so they'll be reared for beef, slaughtered as veal or pet food," the general manager of investments with Prime Value dairy said.
"If you have to keep calves on farm for a longer period of time that obviously creates a whole lot of issues. That takes infrastructure.
"More space in calf sheds and labour. Those are things that take time."
Ms Keightley said there "was not a hope in hell" the June deadline could be achieved and Kiwi farmers needed a longer phase-out period.
"You need to build sheds, and obviously if you're rearing those animals for beef you need additional land to do that as well," she said.
"I'm surprised [Fonterra] haven't given a longer lead-in time, say over the next two years. It's going to be very tricky."
On the front foot
President of Australian Dairy Farmers Rick Gladigau said he was confident Australian-based processors wouldn't follow suit. He said the local industry was proactive in trying to minimise the number of calves euthanised.
In November 2021, the peak body launched an industry "Surplus Calves Policy Task Force" which included farmers, abattoir processors and dairy processing companies.
It aims to end on-farm euthanasia of viable calves, instead allowing them to live longer or go to abattoirs.
He said more dairy farmers were using sexed semen genetics to minimise the number of male calves born, or working with processors to cross dairy breeds with meat cattle to create dairy-beef.
"I think there's also export opportunities, especially in South-east Asia," Mr Gladigau said.
"A more marbled meat, which is what you generally get out of a dairy animal.
"So let's develop those markets as well."
Changing tastes
Mr Gladigau said the industry was speaking directly with consumers about choosing a dairy-breed meat cut.
Last year an industry-run two-day "Growing Beef from Dairy Conference" focused on the issue.
"It's far easier for us to work together and create viable options than to just bring in a rule," Mr Gladigau said.
"The industry is pretty good at doing that, of working together."
The dairy-beef market needed more time to be established, Ms Keightley said, as meat-eaters would have to change their shopping habits.
"If people want these calves reared on farm then as consumers they've got to make a commitment, rather than buying chicken for protein or straight Angus beef, they'll need to buy dairy-beef," she said.
"Because there will be millions of animals that will have to be eaten by somebody, so you've got to develop the market."
Bobby calf on-farm deaths at record low
According to a 2022 Dairy Australia survey, just 1 per cent of healthy dairy calves in Australia were euthanised at birth on farms, down from 2 per cent in the previous survey.
However, 4 per cent of bobby calves were either stillborn, died at birth or euthanised because of illness.
Dairy Australia said federal government data showed a total of 218,644 bobby calves were sent to abattoirs for processing in the 2021–22 financial year, a record low since records began in 2010.
The number of calves sent for processing between the age of 5–30 days was about 16 per cent of the total herd in 2022.
