The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) says it is waiting on Federated Farmers to supply details of alleged "bullying" of Southland farmers during animal welfare inspections of properties .
"Federated Farmers has advised us that some complaints will not be available until late on Monday," MAF's acting director general, Warwick Foran, told NZPA.
"We do not yet know how many complaints we will get, the nature of them, and whether any follow-up information needs to be collected," he said.
Once all the information was available, the ministry would be in a position to start and investigation by senior staff from MAF's assurance and risk group.
Agriculture Minister David Carter ordered an investigation after being bailed up by farmers at last month's Federated Farmers conference in Invercargill, where some delegates to the conference claimed inappropriate behaviour by inspectors who sprang unannounced animal welfare checks.
The farmers accused them of intimidating workers, including ordering them out of dairy sheds during milking.
Mr Foran said Federated Farmers had requested that it treat information provided by farmers as being given in confidence.
He said it was difficult to compare the performance of different regions in terms of animal welfare, but noted the large number of deer farms in Southland meant there was a lot of surgical procedure education and compliance work.
"Generally, farmers are compliant with codes of welfare and the Animal Welfare Act, and by far the majority of farmers in the area are good farmers who take animal welfare seriously," he said.
In the first six months of this year, MAF recorded 19 animal welfare complaints in Otago, including seven for dairy cattle, and a total of 35 complaints in Southland, including 23 for dairy cattle.
In Otago, 14 of the complaints related to animal health and behaviour, and in Southland 26 complaints were in this area.
