(Stuff) - During the 2015-16 growing season, a Central Otago vineyard lost 20 per cent of its crop in one afternoon. A winery which owns a large nearby vineyard estimates it lost 100 tonnes of fruit on the same day.

Along  one road in Wairarapa, several vineyards had up to 30 per cent of their 2015 crop wiped out, also in quick time.   One of the owners - who we are not naming on legal advice - estimates the loss cost him close to half a million dollars.

What's behind these crop losses?  Brutal frosts?  Disease?  Freak storms?

None of the above. They were caused by neighbours, pastoral farmers with a penchant for working the land using toxic chemicals and a callous disregard for the potential of these chemicals to cause destruction to those around them. 

During the 2015-16 growing season, a Central Otago vineyard lost 20 per cent of its crop in one afternoon. A winery which owns a large nearby vineyard estimates it lost 100 tonnes of fruit on the same day.

Along  one road in Wairarapa, several vineyards had up to 30 per cent of their 2015 crop wiped out, also in quick time.   One of the owners - who we are not naming on legal advice - estimates the loss cost him close to half a million dollars.

What's behind these crop losses?  Brutal frosts?  Disease?  Freak storms?

None of the above. They were caused by neighbours, pastoral farmers with a penchant for working the land using toxic chemicals and a callous disregard for the potential of these chemicals to cause destruction to those around them.