A member of the Crafar dairy farming family says he is "shocked and horrified" that starving calves on a farm owned by the family had to be put down.
A Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry spokeswoman said yesterday staff were called on to the Crafar property near Benneydale, between Tokoroa and Te Kuiti, on September 7 after the farm's manager had a serious accident and was unable to care for the animals.
But Allan Crafar told Radio New Zealand that a video of the starving calves, since leaked on YouTube, had been taken three days prior to the accident.
It was understood a local farmer approached MAF about the condition of the animals.
Mr Crafar said one reason for the calves' mistreatment was because the farm manager had "gone away to Kaitaia" prior to his accident, in which both his legs were broken.
"He had young people in charge of those calves and obviously they weren't competent."
Mr Crafar said he was "really upset" that around 100 calves had to be put down.
"I certainly don't condone that. I run round half the night after cows, I live and die for cows, that's what I do. I'd rather hit some humans on the head than I would a calf and there we had to go and slaughter calves and it really pains me."
He said suggestions that the family's farm business, which now occupies 22 central North Island farms, had grown too fast and had too much debt was untrue and " just a tall poppy problem".
The MAF spokeswoman said an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident was ongoing.
Dairy industry body DairyNZ said today farmers had no excuse for ill-treating animals , and poor management practices were not acceptable.
Chief executive Tim Mackie said the group was waiting on the outcome of the MAF investigation but "would not stand in support of any farmer found to have breached animal welfare standards".
"It's bad for the animals, farmers, the industry, and for our country's image."
The Crafar family announced recently it was selling the 22 dairy and dry stock farms the company owns in the central North Island after the latest in a string of prosecutions for resource consent infringements over a number of years, mostly for breaching effluent discharge rules.
