Taieri dairy farmer Gerald Holmes told a recent Otago Regional Council field day on his farm that planning and construction rules kept changing, while paper roads and drainage systems made it difficult to dispose of effluent.
Mr Holmes said he had decided to spend $50,000 on a new holding pond, calculating that it was a better investment than a $25,000 fine for an illegal discharge.
But the presence of paper roads and drainage ditches meant he had to abtain a consent for the structure, adding to the cost and time.
Taieri farmers said encroaching subdivisions and having to deal with staff as farms became larger added to the problems of dealing with effluent.
"We're just farming and as we go along, the council is telling us more and more what we can and cannot do."
Mr Holmes said his farm had grown over the years from a small World War 2 returned serviceman's block, and this season he would milk 720 cows on 240ha.
As farms grew, owners had to entrust staff more with management, such as spreading dairy effluent.
There were two soil types on his farm - Momona and Paretai.
Momona soils tended to be drier than Paretai, and Mr Holmes said that meant careful management when spreading effluent.
Last spring, part of his farm to the north was very wet and he had to wait until the Otago Regional Council started pumping water below his property before it would move.
Other farmers felt council inspectors were too rigid.
They said the undulating nature of paddocks meant some ponding was inevitable, but on inspection, the soil underneath was dry.
The council's land resource manager Susie McKeague said farmers needed to know the holding capacity of their soil and it has installed monitoring sites in parts of the province that provide information on the council's website on when to apply effluent.
Monitoring sites had been installed at Inch Clutha, Clydevale and West Otago but not on the Taieri, something farmers felt was an oversight by the council.
Environment Southland has imposed a maximum application rate of 10mm an hour, something Mrs McKeague said the ORC was reluctant to do.
It has opted to set standards which farmers must meet and it was up them how they were met.