Because it is November, the cows on Aad van Leeuwen's
Waianakarua dairy farm should be out in the paddocks by now.
The Otago Daily Times reported in January that 1000
cows were to be confined to a giant shed on his farm from May
to mid-October.
We also reported Mr van Leeuwen as saying dairy housing of
that kind, which is standard in Europe and North America, was
"becoming popular" down here in the South.
Exactly how many cows in the region have just spent six
months indoors is therefore unknown, but anyway, Chinn-wag is
celebrating their release with a logo-design competition.
The prize will be $150 cash, because I unexpectedly received
some money from the IRD this week.
First, a bit more background. In September, the ODT
reported on dairy-farm proposals for the upper Waitaki basin
that would see 17,850 cows housed from March to October (a
longer stint than Mr van Leeuwen's cows) in individual
cubicles within sheds, across 16 farms.
We're seeing a creeping-in of intensive, non-free-range
dairying here, and I figure some of New Zealand's
dairy-product branding will have to be changed accordingly.
Fonterra's Anchor brand, with its baffling but
unrelated-to-cows maritime theme, is safe, but Goodman
Fielder will surely be looking to ditch Meadow Fresh.
If, increasingly, cows are not going to tread a meadow, or
pasture of any kind for most of the year, then Meadow Fresh,
as a brand, will be rendered misleading.
And so I propose a new milk brand, Cubicle Fresh, and invite
you to design a logo for it.
The winning design will look good, will convey some aspect of
factory dairying, and will ideally provoke discussion about
cubicle-style dairying in New Zealand.
Yes, discussion. Cliff Richard once sang, "It's so funny, how
we don't talk any more," and Chinn-wag is inclined to agree.
Is cubicle dairying right for this country? Our butter is
emphatically marketed in the United Kingdom as "free-range".
The photo accompanying this blog shows Anchor brands itself
as "The Free Range Butter Co" in the UK, and you may or may
not be able to make out the words "Forage, Pasture, Mooo,
Roam, Free" in the grass at the bottom-left of the package.
Free-range, evidently, is what our butter has going for it as
far as UK consumers are concerned.
Yet Fonterra at present does not distinguish between farmers
who house their cows for months continuously in sheds, and
those who don't. This may well be because just a tiny
percentage of its suppliers have moved or are moving away
from free-range, but still, that guarantee to British
consumers is already compromised.
Also, do we care about the happiness of cubicle cows? The New
Zealand pork industry is at present in a flap trying to
revert to free-range farming, or something like it, because
people don't like pigs to be maltreated. Is cubicle dairying
really something we are prepared to accept?
So, Cubicle Fresh. Design the logo. You can draw it and scan
it, or use some fancy graphic-design program, or MS Paint:
whatever's fine.
Just save your entry as a jpeg and email to anna.chinn AT
odt.co.nz by November 26 to be in to win $150.
I'll get someone who knows about design to help me judge, and
if enough entries are received will spontaneously create a
second-place cash prize too.
The winning design will accompany my blog entry for Friday,
November 27. Happy drawing.
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