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Deer farmers in New Zealand will soon have to protect their animals from heat stress and hypothermia, give them hiding places and ensure they are fit for transportation.
This is all part of a bid to assuage growing consumer concern over the plight of animals used in food
production and will see the $320 million deer industry become the first pastoral sector to adopt a legally enforceable code of welfare.
Dairy, beef and sheep farmers are likely to follow suit.
While the code's architects argue that the potential economic benefits outweigh its costs, they do not expect the move to translate into price premiums just yet.
Under the deer code of welfare, issued by Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton this month, farmers are obliged to provide adequate food and water, shelter to prevent heat stress or hypothermia, and ensure animals are fit for transportation, one of the most stressful events in their lives.
"The way things are moving in Europe in particular, most of our industries are seeing that consumers are taking considerable interest in the welfare of the animals in these products they buy and need to be satisfied they are subject to an acceptable level of animal welfare," said Peter O'Hara, chairman of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, which recommended the code.
The code, drafted by industry but signed off by the independent NAWAC, provides strong evidence for prosecutions under the Animal Welfare Act 1999, O'Hara said. "It is not uncommon to see deer in paddocks with no or inadequate shelter or areas in which they can exercise their instinctive behaviour."
However, he says providing hiding places carries an economic benefit as well as a welfare benefit, as fawn survival is significantly improved.
Deer Industry New Zealand chief executive Mark O'Connor described welfare standards with legal effect as "table stakes" to be in the game, rather than a selling point.
"If venison marketers cannot point to welfare standards, they may not win the business. But having them will not necessarily result in a price premium."
The dairy industry is expected to follow suit by the end of the year - with sheep and beef farmers in hot pursuit - in an effort to secure their reputations in overseas markets where public sensitivity to animal suffering is at an all-time high.
A draft dairy cattle code, put forward by parties including Fonterra and Dexcel, also emphasises the importance of shade and shelter, and ensuring animal health.
Rob Gregory, an animal welfare business developer for Dexcel, said there were clear economic benefits to be had from putting such a code in place - especially in the case of shade and shelter.
"It may cost you several thousand dollars to plant trees or hedges as windbreaks in a series of fields but there's research to show there's also an increase in milk production."
He said while there may be more costs associated with going beyond the minimum standards, to meet recommended best practice, the goal post could well shift.
"The recommended best practices could well become the minimum standards of tomorrow."
Although the final version of the dairy code was in the hands of NAWAC, Gregory did not expect it to contain any radical changes in the final form. "It's a question of dragging the bottom 10 per cent up, rather than making the top 90 per cent excellent."
Asked if the adoption of a dairy code of welfare could boost New Zealand dairy prices further, he said the New Zealand dairy industry was not in the habit of promoting itself on its animal welfare record.
"At the moment it's a case of New Zealand consolidating its reputation as somewhere that has very, very good animal welfare rather than receiving a financial payout for that."
However he said that could change in the future. "Certainly in Europe there's talk of different levels or tiers of animal welfare - Bronze, Silver and Gold standard.
"And having something like the dairy code and being able to show good compliance with it would be a powerful tool for arguing that we're in the higher echelons of animal welfare relative to suppliers in other countries."
Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said it was too early to tell what costs and benefits were involved but said the code made a lot of sense.
