Nathan Guy says some of the calves that went to the dump could have been used for their meat.

Officials ordered the slaughter of 2405 Mycoplasma bovis-diseased calves and had them dumped in a Winton, Southland landfill.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said the livestock were "too small for the commercial chains and the cost of processing exceeded the value of the animal".

On Thursday in a Parliamentary select committee hearing, National Primary Industries spokesman Nathan Guy asked officials if they knew of any such dumping.

MPI's director of response Geoff Gwynn replied "not to my knowledge". An MPI spokeswoman said on Friday "at that time he [Gwynn] could not recall any detail around this issue but has since checked and confirmed the above".

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The calves were processed by AsureQuality on behalf of MPI at a Gore plant leased by Invercargill company Blue Sky Meats, which had been decommissioned but was re-opened to deal with the calves, and sent to the AB Lime landfill between Winton and Browns. The landfill is privately owned.

It is not known exactly when the slaughter occurred, but is believed to be during the first few months of this year.

Southland District Council water and waste services manager Ian Evans said the AB Lime landfill was a class A landfill and would be one of the top landfill sites in New Zealand.

The site was well equipped to manage the risk, he said.

"There are systems in place in Southland to deal with this type of occurrence."

In addition, a further 1270 animals were killed on farms and taken to landfills as they were unfit for transport to processing plants for animal welfare reasons.

MPI said the majority of these were calves and their destruction was ordered under the Animal Welfare Act. Some on-site post mortems of the animals showed multiple factors for their condition, for example rotavirus and pneumonia.

The calf slaughter is part of the cull of 22,000 cows which is underway, with nearly half of the animals already destroyed.

Guy said it was "an alarming revelation because the animals were fit and healthy enough to travel yet were slaughtered at a processing plant and dumped in a community landfill."

"M. bovis meat is fine for human consumption and pet food which makes a mockery of this Government's pledge to end poverty when the meat could have easily ended up in sausages."

Guy said it was apparent the Minister for Primary Industries Damien O'Connor and the lead officials had not known what was going on.

One of the reasons why the cost of processing exceeded the value of the animal is because processors have demanded a special payment for taking any of the diseased livestock. Guy said he had heard the Alliance Group charged $190 per animal, but that was the highest price being asked.

His informant had also told him the livestock were not just calves but also yearlings, which could have been valuable for their meat.