Tararua dairy farmers under pressure over One Plan and inclement weather

Paddocks were flooded alongside State Highway 2 between Pahiatua and Woodville last week. Photo: Supplied

Last week Tararua dairy farmers faced a double whammy with the big wet and news that the Environment Court was insisting Horizons Regional Council tighten its implementation of the One Plan.

Jamie Smith, Fonterra's area manager for Tararua, told the Dannevirke News that farmers were well prepared for the heavy rainfall but were thankful the weather across the district wasn't as bad as had been expected.

"There were a number of very wet farms across the district, in particular around the Woodville area, but luckily the rivers went down very quickly on Wednesday night, therefore none burst their banks," he said.

"A number of farmers had already moved stock to higher ground as a precaution.

"However, there is still a lot of surface water around and the prediction of more rain this week will not help the situation."

Mr Smith said Fonterra was able to collect all the milk from the Tararua district, although there were a number of delays in achieving this.

"I haven't heard of any farmers drying off their total herds, but a number have dried off some of their cows," he said.

"Some farmers have also gone to once-a-day milking, but I think most of these farmers were looking to go once-a-day shortly anyway, the bad weather just brought this forward."

With half the dairy farmers in the upper Manawatu catchment still to go through their One Plan consenting process, the news of the Fish and Game and the Environmental Defence Society's win in the Environment Court has left them facing an uncertain future.

Horizons Regional Council is now halting any further consents while it reviews the judgment and its own processes, including those already in the pipeline.

The Environment Court has directed Horizons to change its implementation process regarding the One Plan.