Young has taken aim at some of Southland’s civic leaders, who have recently blamed farmers for the state of the province’s waterways.
Young said most farmers are doing their best for the environment and the attack on the industry “has to stop”.
He’s “disappointed” at comments from Shadbolt and Ōraka-Aparima Rūnaka leader Stewart Bull, and has also hit back at an attack on winter grazing in the province, which made national headlines last week.
Invercargill mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt said in an episode of Anika Moa Unleashed, which was originally broadcast in February but re-aired on TVNZ recently, that if there was one thing he would still protest against, it was the number of cows in Southland.
“We went from 135,000 to 750,000 and they love nothing better than pooing in rivers,” Shadbolt said in the episode.
“I mean they’re just like freedom campers and we’ve got to make a stand, we’ve got to clean up the rivers and the environment,” Shadbolt said.
A report from the Ministry of the Environment shows there were 731,209 dairy cows in Southland in 2015, and the number of dairy cows increased 539 percent between 1994 and 2015.
“I’m appalled at that flippant comment, and its a lot of nonsense. Cows are not allowed to stand in water like that anymore,” Young said.
“Civic leaders don’t need to be running down farmers, they need to be supporting the farmers that come to the city that support their local economy.
“Federated Farmers wish to work collaboratively together to solve environmental issues instead of attacking each other.”
Last month Stuff reported Ōraka-Aparima Rūnaka formally approached the Southland District Council and Environment Southland opposing any consents which would intensify dairy farming.
Leader Stewart Bull said “there isn’t a river in Southland you can swim in any more”.
Young said that comment was “absolute nonsense”.
“There are still a lot of rivers and parts of rivers in Southland where thousands of people swim every year.
“He doesn’t back that comment up with any science.”
This week, environmentalist Angus Robson to launch a campaign against intensive winter grazing, which he says is a “massive environmental and animal welfare issue”.
Images used in the campaign show cows standing and lying in deep mud in Southland and Otago.
The campaign prompted Environment Southland to issue a statement.
Chairman Nicol Horrell and deputy chairman Lloyd McCallum said while some would argue the photos and footage shared with media painted the worst possible picture, taken after high rainfall, they did show wintering practices that as a council they would not accept, nor could the farming industry.
Young said there were “definitely some aspects of farming that still needed tidying up”.
“There are some small pockets of Southland that may be too low lying and prone to ponding in heavy rainfall events that won’t be sustainable for winter grazing in the future.”
It cost about $750,000 to build a wintering barn, and Federated Farmers was working with councils and government to find ways to reduce costs to make it more affordable.
“Farmers are the life-blood of Southland and a decrease in stock numbers could bring Southland to its knees in terms of financial sustainability.
“Everyone needs a farmer every day to survive. People keep forgetting that every time they go to a supermarket to buy food its produced by a farmer, whether it be a farmer in New Zealand or further afield.”
Attempts to reach Shadbolt for comment on Sunday were unsuccessful.