The recent theft of 500 dairy cows has been another harsh wake up call for the industry as farmers consider if they are taking the right precautions in protecting their second largest asset.
Michael Lee, an agribusiness audit specialist at Crowe Horwath, advises how the introduction of simple systems can mitigate potential theft.
The Federated Farmers' dairy industry chairperson, Andrew Hoggard points out if a bank was robbed there would be uproar, but police don't tend to see stock as cold, hard cash.
Lee agrees.
"Stock theft is extremely important for farmers as not only do they lose their capital when stock is stolen, which for a dairy cow can be up to $2000, they also suffer the loss of revenue from that stock."