Northland Age
  • Northland Age home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Rural
  • Opinion
  • Kaitaia weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northland Age

Four Legged Fare Paying Passengers

Northland Age
13 Aug, 2013 01:52 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

As long as we've had farming, we've had to transport animals and we've come a long way from the small coastal vessels known as 'mosquito fleets' that used to transport livestock before the advent of road and rail. And the days of droving 2,000 cattle from the Far North to Whangarei (as Ken Lewis did in 1982) have gone the way of the dodo.

The evolution of livestock transport has been aided by improved technology. By the 1930s there were simple flat decks with detachable wooden stock crates which could hold around 100 lambs. Cattle weren't carried by trucks until larger rigs were introduced around the 1950s.

Articulated truck-and-trailer units which could carry more stock were introduced in the 1960s. Then, from around the 1970s, in came the big rigs that were able to transport 600 prime lambs, 400 ewes or 40 cattle. Triple-level crates could be converted to double-deck for cattle and the crates were removable and for trucking firms it meant freight could be carried outside of the stock season and so help make the business more viable.

If trucks and stock numbers became bigger so did the amount of effluent produced during a journey.

One doesn't have to be very old to remember travelling behind a fully-laden stock truck and coping with the resulting smear on the windscreen and splats on the bonnet but amazingly it was only 10 years ago that an industry code to deal with the problem was finally introduced.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Other changes have occurred over the years and if you ask some of the old-timers of the transport sector what it was like 'back when' they will talk of a highly regulated industry. Tex Wilson of Cooper Wilson Transport in Kaikohe started in the business in 1980 and recalls the rigmarole required to obtain a transport licence.

"You had to go to court before a judge to be approved and there were a lot of people who would dispute your application to get a licence.

"There would be meetings in town halls and you would be told you weren't wanted in the area because you were taking business away from locals. It was fierce!"

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Once there were 104 Vehicle Authorities in the Bay of Islands alone. Now there are 15. And although transport improvements can now see as many as 550 lambs carried on a full load, the changing nature of agriculture has seen a drop in the number of farms producing sheep and cattle as fewer trucks can accommodate more stock.

Then there's the smaller end of the transport scale. Take alpacas as an example and in terms of being good passengers these animals would have to be among the most compliant. Steve Hart of Naturally Alpacas of Pakaraka says when you load 'em up and start the engine, they obligingly sit down. It probably comes from a combination of genetic inheritance and obliging natures.

Mr Hart used to sell trailers for other people to transport alpacas so he was something of an expert even before he began to farm the South American camelids.

He uses a small stock trailer with sides and a canopy or an old Mercedes van without seats in which the alpacas can flop themselves down comfortably. He knows of one couple who transport their alpacas in a seven-seater people carrier without the seats.

When Steve Hart and his wife started their business in Pakaraka they purchased 51 of the animals from New Plymouth and there are specialist companies that will handle loads like that. Given that distance, perhaps it's just as well alpacas sit down for the journey.

Tex

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northland Age

Northland Age

'Still a long road': Volunteers tackle Northland's marine pollution

15 Jun 06:00 PM
Northland Age

Northland chaplain leads way to help homeless move from tent to cabin

13 Jun 12:00 AM
Northland Age

'An honour': Far North cafe's triple victory at national awards

12 Jun 03:00 AM

The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northland Age

'Still a long road': Volunteers tackle Northland's marine pollution

'Still a long road': Volunteers tackle Northland's marine pollution

15 Jun 06:00 PM

Local crews collected 106,000 litres of litter in Northland over three months.

Northland chaplain leads way to help homeless move from tent to cabin

Northland chaplain leads way to help homeless move from tent to cabin

13 Jun 12:00 AM
'An honour': Far North cafe's triple victory at national awards

'An honour': Far North cafe's triple victory at national awards

12 Jun 03:00 AM
Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest and Showquest

Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest and Showquest

12 Jun 01:57 AM
How one volunteer makes people feel seen
sponsored

How one volunteer makes people feel seen

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northland Age e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to The Northland Age
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northland Age
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP