Hundreds of New Zealand and Australian cows reportedly die after export to Sri Lanka

1News: Hundreds of Australian and New Zealand dairy cows have reportedly died after being live exported to Sri Lanka as part of an Australian government-backed deal.

ABC reports the deal has left farmers in Sri Lanka broke and in some cases suicidal after the cows they paid for turned out to be overpriced, unhealthy and infertile.

A total of 5,000 cattle were sent to Sri Lanka by West Australian export company Wellard to help establish dairy farms there to reduce the country’s dependence on imported milk powder.

The company has said the total number of cows which have died is around nine per cent - or 400 – and that those deaths were due to a “handful” of farmers which had ignored herd management advice.

The ABC reported that Sri Lankan farmer Amal Suriyege bought 200 cows last year, but the animals were in poor condition when they arrived.

He said he lost about 160 cows on his farm, Lammermoor Estate, that another 180 calves had also died, and that the remaining 40 cows would also have to culled because some were infected with mycoplasma bovis.

“What I have now are carcasses of those dead cows and calves ... I think I have a cemetery, not a farm anymore,” he told ABC.

Sri Lankan business consultant Mohammed Mausook Riyal said at least one farmer he knew had committed suicide because his purchased cows had died, and said they were the wrong breed for the climate, making them susceptible to diseases.

Riyal also said farmers had paid substantially more for the cows than they were actually worth.

“Farmers were told each cow would produce 20 litres per day when they are only producing 10-15 litres per day,” he told ABC.

The milk was selling for less than promised, and the special imported feed recommended for the cows had ended up costing more than double the price they were told it would.

Wellard maintains that all of the animals were inspected by vets and were pregnant when they left for Sri Lanka.

Executive Chairman John Klepec said similar programs had been successfully implemented in a number of similar locations previously.

Klepec said Sri Lankan vets had certified the cows as disease-free when they arrived in Sri Lanka.

“What happens post-delivery of the cattle is subject to the farm management,” he said. “Poor farm management practices will produce poor outcomes.”

Under the program, Wellard was contracted to import 20,000 cows into Sri Lanka, and has already imported 5000, with the remaining 15,000 to be shipped within the next year.

However, the auditor-general of Sri Lanka has called for an immediate halt to the program.

Gamini Wijesinghe said in a report in May that farmers had suffered “financial difficulty and mental distress” and described the program as an “unbearable burned to the Government”.

The imported cows were not suitable to a Sri Lankan climate, Wijesinghe said, their fertility rate was low and they were highly vulnerable to disease.

New Zealand animal welfare organisation SAFE’s spokesperson Hans Kriek said the deal, “sanctioned by the New Zealand government”, has “turned in a human and animal welfare disaster”.

“The cruelty of live animal exports is well documented, and New Zealand’s apparent lack of concern for the fate of animals once they leave our shores is deplorable,” a release from SAFE read.

“Live export corporations are sending animals to far-flung countries where untold horrors could await them.”

Kriek said he had written to New Zealand Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor, who had confirmed there are no plans to stop the export of breeding animals from New Zealand.

“The Government needs to urgently ban live exports, starting with an immediate halt on dairy cow export,” Kriek said.