Climate campaigners and farmers have long been battling over the livestock herd headache - whether we have too many cows.
But Newshub can reveal our latest poll shows half of New Zealanders don't want to cull the herd.
Aotearoa: it's the land of milk and the millions of cows who make it and who make us tonnes of money and tonnes of greenhouse gases.
"There's been too much focus on livestock numbers as opposed to the problem which is actually greenhouse gases," says farmer George Moss.
Moss' footprint has already gone down a few sizes
"Efficiencies on the farm which is having better cows, better genetics - so fewer cows producing more milk."
Climate Change Minister James Shaw says there are farmers who "have reduced their herd sizes, lowered their input costs and become more profitable on farm while also reducing their greenhouse gas emissions".
The Climate Change Commission estimates sheep and cattle herds will likely fall by 13.6 percent by 2030, but climate campaigners want to go further.
"They're making the climates sick, our rivers sick and people sick - and so the number of cows needed to reduce and the amount of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser needs to be seriously cut and phased out," says Greenpeace Aotearoa's Christine Rose.
Though the majority of Kiwis don't agree cow numbers need to drop.
In the latest Newshub Reid Research poll we asked: "Do you think New Zealand needs to reduce livestock numbers to combat climate change?"
The results show 50.4 percent - half of the country - said no, while 37.6 percent said yes and 12 percent didn't know.
"Our view is that we don't need to cull herd sizes but we do need to do is actually lead the world in finding the technology and the solutions that we need," says National's Christopher Luxon.
The Climate Change Minister is steering clear of cutting herds.
"It's not my decision to increase or decrease herd sizes. What I am trying to do is make sure that we find solutions to how we reduce pollution from the agriculture sector as well as every other sector in the economy," Shaw says.
How we reduce pollution from the agriculture sector is exactly what the Government is currently asking farmers. It wants to know how they think their emissions should be priced.
But climate activists argue it shouldn't be up to farmers to decide, saying that's like asking the foxes to guard the hen-house.
