Lowrie had employed a part-time farm worker to help with sharemilking while he left to work on a farm in the South Island. MPI compliance officers found the dead and starving animals on the 32ha farm.
There were 35 cattle on the property, divided into mobs of 25 and 10.
The farm was in a rundown state, internal fences were in disrepair, there were broken or disconnected water troughs, and a number of deer carcasses were found in the paddocks.
Lowrie was found guilty after a judge-alone hearing early this year and was yesterday fined $4000 and ordered to pay reparation of $2808 to MPI when he appeared for sentencing.
Evidence given by the farm worker was that Lowrie never showed him the lower part of the farm before he left for the South Island - where the neglected cows were discovered.
Lowrie's lawyer Greg Bradford asked the court to impose a modest fine as he was disappointed at losing the cattle, some of which belonged to his late father.
Judge Greg Davis said although Lowrie was not reckless, he was ultimately responsible as the farm owner to look after the animals.
MPI district compliance manager for Northland, Darren Edwards, said the focus on welfare of animals had increased in recent years, especially after the merger of the Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority in 2011.
From the nine compliance officers presently in Northland, six are able to respond to complaints on animal welfare.
"We are now taking a hard line on offenders," he said. It was vitally important farmers employed suitably qualified workers with appropriate instructions on the farm to avoid a repeat of what happened at Lowrie's farm.
