Cows on the move, but fewer than usual

Motorists on back-country roads in recent weeks may have found themselves in the thick of something of a New Zealand rural tradition.

From the middle of May to the middle of June is the traditional time of year for dairy farmers to send cows to winter grazing or sharemilkers move to new farms.

While many farmers truck their cows, some, such as Mark Adam, shift theirs on the hoof.

Mr Adam's make an hour-long walk from Maungatua to winter grazing at Outram.

Mr Adam said there seemed to be fewer farmers driving their stock on the road, which could be due to farm amalgamation.

Increasingly, dairy farmers buy separate wintering farms, or runoff blocks, or contract other farmers to winter their cows, meaning cows are shifted off the home farm for the winter, leaving it solely for the milking season.

The Otago Regional Council reports that most years, it gets some complaints about cow effluent on roads, but this year it seemed to have received fewer.