New intensive winter grazing regulations were introduced as part of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater.
Unfortunately these initial rules were so unpractical that both the agricultural sector and the regional councils were up in arms, due to the unworkable nature of the proposed rules.
So after a frantic rework, a new version of rules for intensive winter grazing was introduced last year, giving two pathways for farmers who could not comply; management as part of an integrated farm plan or a resource consent process. However given neither an integrated farm plans or resource consent regime were available, the intensive winter grazing regulations were delayed again last year to enable the Government to put together the requirements for farm plan regime.
However, now 12 months later, farmers are being forced into getting a resource consent for intensive winter grazing as the alternative pathway of freshwater farm plan has not been developed.
The frustration for me as a farmer is that I am now forced to spend a minimum of $1900 to get a piece of paper that says I can continue doing the activities I have done using current best practice for the past six years.
To add insult to injury, the Otago Regional Council has openly acknowledged regional rates have increased to cover costs associated with additional compliance requirements, of which intensive winter grazing consents is part of. It is worth noting that farmers are now having to plant next year’s winter crops (at considerable expense) not knowing if they will be able to graze them or not.
Farmers would have much preferred to spend that $1900 on some on-the-ground improvements resulting in actual beneficial environmental outcomes.
For example, $1900 would allow me to stock exclude all stock for about 100m of waterway, or it would have allowed me to buy about 400 plants for riparian plantings or it could have bought me four water troughs which I could install to ensure stock do not enter waterways for drinking, all of which will give practical on-the-ground environmental benefits.
Instead, all farmers doing intensive winter grazing are being forced to go through a box-ticking exercise of getting a resource consent, which will not give any additional environmental benefits over current industry best practice.
It is disgraceful that this Government, having developed the intensive winter grazing regulations specifying pathways for compliance, has not yet developed the requirements for integrated farm plans, and hence the ability to farmers to progress down this pathway for compliance.
In addition, regional councils around the country are scrambling to try to be ready to assess and issue and administer, let alone monitor the significant number of intensive winter grazing resource consents which are now required (estimated to be in the order of 2000 to 3000 thousand in Otago alone).
Just imagine the on-the-ground environmental outcomes which could have been achieved if each of these farmers had spent their $1900 on things like stock exclusion, riparian planting or stock water troughs.
