Tarras farmers are not letting the grass grow under their feet when it comes to securing future supplies of water for irrigation.
An Otago Regional Council plan change (plan change 5A) that would reduce the availability of irrigation water from a traditional source - the Lindis River - is looming.
And, while Tarras farmers who rely on that source are expected to argue about the extent of the change, many are already busy building irrigation schemes to take water from other sources - primarily the Clutha River.
John Morrison grows 50,000 peony plants on his property in the Ardgour Valley part of the Tarras district.
He and six other farmers are installing a 5km pipeline from a borefield on the banks of the Clutha River to carry 300 litres of water per second to a total of 600ha.
Mr Morrison describes the scheme he and the other shareholders are building as ''small fry''.
It is, nevertheless, costing $2 million.
The water is due to begin flowing next month.
Mr Morrison says a secure summer water supply will make his current operation more productive, but the big advantage will be getting a supply to previously unirrigated land that would suit new vineyards.
Tarras farmer and Terraces Irrigation Ltd shareholder Pete Jolly also sees viticultural or horticultural potential for the dry terraces and hills he and three other farmers will begin irrigating this summer for the first time.
While he describes himself as a ''bit of a traditionalist'' who is unlikely to be the one who plants a cherry or nectarine orchard, he sees the scheme giving Tarras farmers of the future options beyond sheep.
''With water we've got alternatives; without water, we've got none.''
The scheme supplies up to 716 litres per second of Clutha River water to 1700ha not already irrigated by water from the Lindis.
While recognising the Lindis supply was ''contentious'', given the council's plan change, Mr Jolly said he would be ''sticking with the Lindis for as long as we can''.
Mr Jolly was chairman of Tarras Water Ltd, the company set up to build a $36 million scheme to irrigate 6000ha using water from the Clutha River.
That scheme did not get off the ground.
The new scheme was a ''totally different concept'', Mr Jolly said, but had ''salvaged something out of nothing''.
It was a work in progress, although its main feature, a huge storage dam just north of Tarras township, was in operation.
Mr Jolly said he had put in ''a heap of pivots'' on his own farm, and he listed four or five other farmers who had been involved with the Tarras Water Ltd scheme who were now developing their own irrigation systems.
''So a lot of that ground that TWL was going to irrigate will ultimately be irrigated, but not all of it.''
Later this month, the regional council is expected to release public submissions on the Lindis River plan change 5A, which will set minimum flow levels for the river and place limits on how much water can be taken from its associated aquifer.
