Delays in Winter Grazing pathways frustrating for farmers – Feds

Cows grazing on winter crops. Photo / DairyNZ

Farmers are getting frustrated with winter grazing pathways, which are “limited and full of roadblocks,” Federated Farmers Winter Grazing spokesman Colin Hurst says.

While Feds wanted to make it clear that farmers should carry out winter grazing in a responsible manner and in no way encouraged farmers to break the law, the growing frustration was understandable, Hurst said.

For the last two years, the Government promised that farmers wanting to undertake winter grazing would have three pathways available to them, a Permitted Activity Pathway, a Certified Farm Plan Pathway, and a Resource Consent Pathway.

In March 2021, Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and Minister for the Environment David Parker said the Farm Plan Pathway would be available in 2022 ready for the 2023 winter.

Minister O’Connor again promised this would happen in April 2021, Hurst said.

“Despite these promises, [it] is not available and is not expected to be ready for some time”.

This left thousands of farmers requiring resource consent to comply with rules, Hurst said.

He said ministers had delayed the Winter Grazing regulations twice, as they recognised the alternative Farm Plan Pathway was not ready.

Federated Farmers said it called for the regulations to be delayed until the Farm Plan Pathway was available to farmers, to avoid the “enormous consent burden” on councils and farmers.

Hurst said Ministers had “flatly refused our numerous requests”.

“Farmers have done a great job in recent years and Regional Councils report significant improvements to farmer practices this past winter”.

At a recent Invercargill public meeting organised by Southland Federated Farmers, some of the Southland Federated Farmers elected representatives took a personal stance that they would not be applying for Winter Grazing consents, as they consider them to be a waste of time and money.

“This is a clear indication of sheer desperation, and only necessary because the Government has failed to deliver the promised alternative Farm Plan Pathway,” Hurst said.

The government has estimated that 10,000 farmers will need to get resource consent to undertake winter grazing.

This estimate is also consistent with council and industry estimates. The conservative estimate for the average cost of each consent is $2000.

“This is a total cost of approximately $20 million which could be much better spent elsewhere,” Hurst said.

“In addition to the financial burden, the process of obtaining resource consent is time-consuming and stressful, so what is the real point?

“Resource consents should be the exception, not the rule - and apply to high-risk, not everyday activities.

“The need for the resource consent is largely down to Government, not farmer failures”.

For more information check out MPI’s Intensive Winter Grazing Module and guidance produced by Beef+LambNZ and DairyNZ.

Find further details on whether resource consent is needed here.