Owners of a dry stock property near Te Kuiti, Paula and Mark Stone, said they were approached by MPI to agree to the 1080 drop on their property - although MPI said it was DOC who approached the farmers - which they did after an official visited them for a meeting.
The couple confirmed that DOC had contacted them two weeks prior to the drop to tell them to move cattle which they did.
The farmers whose cows might have been killed by 1080 says it's possible the animals escaped into the area where the poison was dropped.
Mrs Stone said the cattle had been let into the bush area in the past where the drop occurred.
"By the bush area there's a track and there's open paddocks in that area and so we do allow them in there, but all winter that gate was secured."
While she said it was not certain the animals had escaped into the operation area, it was a possibility and when DOC visited their property to inspect the dead cattle, they walked the boundary of the paddock and found the fence that had been secured had been damaged.
"But it is likely that they've gone into that area, yes it is very likely."
she confirmed no baits had been found in the actual paddock where the cattle died.
DOC Operations Director David Speirs said staff had been to the site and all the evidence pointed to the animals escaping on to pasture in the drop zone.
"The gate in question was secured to a post by a piece of wire around its middle, and it's rotated around that piece of wire. The gate wasn't well secured at all."
No bait was found in the paddock where the cows were found dead, he said.
A 500kg animal would have to eat 22 or 23 baits to get a toxic dose, but it wasn't impossible a cow would eat that much. The drop rate is 300 baits per hectare.
GPS-based data showing where the helicopter flew and the follow-up on the ground confirmed the baits were dropped where they were supposed to go.
Third parties make use of these kind of incidents to fuel opposition to 1080, he said.
"The tragedy of this is ... it distracts from the real message, which is that we're trying to save New Zealand's biodiversity.
"We will lose the battle if we don't use tools like 1080.
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