A Northland family is searching for answers after finding one of their breeding bulls shot, bled and butchered on their property in Ngataki.

Ethan Gibbons has said it will cost his parents, who own the farm, upwards of $10,000 to replace the prized bull.

"Obviously, none of us are feeling that pleased about it, are we? I mean, I'm pretty angry about it, and I can only imagine what mum and dad are feeling," Gibbons said.

"My parents aren't the type of people that will show their anger ... but when Mum and Dad decide it's time buy another one, you're looking at 10...12...$13,000."

It was on Tuesday morning when the family initially realised their bull was missing. They run four mobs of around 30 cows, and each has a bull to service the mobs.

"They went out the back of the farm to feed the mob and shift them to the next paddock, and noticed the bull wasn't there ... they went to look for him and found him dead, chopped up, or partially chopped up," Gibbons told RNZ.

He said It was clear that the kill was intentional, and had been done by a human.

The bull had been shot in the neck, had its throat cut, had bled out, and had then been butchered into pieces, Gibbons said.

It's unclear whether the kill had any real purpose, as the animal's meat had been left behind.

"To me, it looked meaningless. Like, why?" Gibbons said.

"They started cutting him up into pieces, but then I don't know whether they got tired or their knives got blunt, or got disturbed or whatever happened, and then they just bailed and left him there.

"...One of the forestry gates to access that part of the property was cut. So, whoever done it had cut the gate to get through, to do what they did."

It's not the first time their family farm has been targeted: Gibbons said a similar incident occurred a few years back.

The first time, a group of cows was slaughtered.

'Not a lot' police can do

Following that incident, the family had installed security cameras - but those were stolen.

"One hundred percent it's going to happen again. I mean, yeah, it's definitely going to happen again, and it might not even be the same people," Gibbons said.

While the family had been in contact with police, it seemed there was only so much they could do.

Police received a report that a bull had been unlawfully slaughtered on a property in Ngataki between August 11 and 12.

Senior Sergeant Richard Garton said no positive lines of inquiry had been identified, and the investigation has been closed.

It was 'the only occurrence of this happening recently.'

Gibbons said there were no shell casings left behind by the killer.

"We did recover a bullet out of his neck ... but, well, how are they going to pinpoint that to anyone? Yeah, there's just not a lot they can do," Gibbons said.

On Wednesday, he posted a callout on the local Houhora Facebook community page, hoping to get some answers.

Since then, the response had been overwhelming, with locals expressing their anger at what appeared to be a reoccurring issue in the community with other local farmers reporting sheep and cattle going missing.

"I mean, it has happened to other people around here, and something's going to have to happen otherwise, yeah ... farmers might be taking matters into their own hands maybe, I don't know," Gibbons said.