Majority feel too many cows for waterways to cope

A Horizon opinion poll commissioned by Greenpeace reveals that 52 percent of Kiwis think there are too many cows for our waterways to cope with.

Environment Minister David Parker has gone on record saying New Zealand has "too many cows" and that farmers may have to reduce herd numbers under proposed new waterway pollution rules.

The Horizon surey also showed that only 16% of people asked felt that cow numbers could continue to grow.

In a breakdown of political parties 66 percent of New Zealand First voters, 56 percent of Labour voters and 90 percent of Green party supporters felt there were too many cows.

Among National voters polled 40 percent thought there were too many cows. 20 percent of National voters thought the herd should continue to expand, 29 percent that there are about the right number of cows, and 11% were unsure.

Moratorium

The survey also found support for a moratorium on new dairy conversions. Overall, 44% agreed that the Government should put in place a moratorium on dairy conversion, while only 15% disagreed.

A majority of voters for Labour, New Zealand First and the Greens supported the moratorium. Meanwhile, more National voters supported the moratorium than disagreed with it.

The survey was of 1,117 members of the HorizonPoll national panels, representing the New Zealand population 18+, conducted between 20 and 27 March 2018.

The sample is weighted on age, gender, education, employment status and, to ensure balance from a political perspective, party vote at the 2017 general election.  It has a maximum margin of error at a 95% confidence level of ±3.0% overall.