Will Foley: And now the witch hunt begins

Tukituki River has been shrouded in mystery, with many pointing an accusatory finger at upstream farmers.

With water back to safe levels and the boil notice lifted in Havelock North, the 'witch hunt' begins on who we're going to blame.

Every man and his dog came out of hiding, prancing in front of the media as 'experts' telling stories about farming and the Tukituki River as the source of water contamination.

To me this has seemed very premature and perhaps unfortunate for them that they seemed to have taken their corner before the findings of any inquiry has been made public.

To date I haven't seen one piece of evidence to suggest the contamination was related to farming up-stream of the Tukituki River.

Yes, the contamination has been linked to ruminant animals and there are some in the near vicinity of the bores, but nothing I can see that would cause concern by the way they are farmed.

Like an orchestrated litany, multiple fingers were simultaneously and deliberately pointed in the media to feedlots and cattle in rivers.

By highlighting perceived wrongs and using generalisations, the biggest critics of farming seemed to raise issues from the same 'song sheet' that have all been addressed in the Tukituki Plan Change 6.

These 'experts' should all be aware of them and there shouldn't be a need to point out something that has already been addressed. There is a plan in place to deal with them, and farmers were leading the way well before Plan Change 6, in fencing off streams and riparian and erosion planting.

There weren't any photos of this work anywhere in sight and stories about great stewards of the land, like Bruce Wills, Steve Wyn Harris, James Hunter in the sheep and beef sector, were left untold. Lucky for us these leaders all farm in Hawke's Bay.

Discussions about how dairy farmers are well ahead of other industry sectors with stock exclusion, effluent management and so on, were left untold.

I would love for everything to be fixed tomorrow but like most things it takes time, and there are strict dates and deadlines to be met.

Like a broken record we continue to see a blatant misrepresentation of the facts on the Ruataniwha Dam and that thousands of hectares of land will be converted to dairy.

This is simply not true. Yes, it was used in the modelling, but with the actual policy use in the water contract figures, there is ... wait for it ... one dairy conversion planned on 100 hectares.

It doesn't matter what facts and figures are provided to opponents, like a finely-tuned orchestra they refuse to change their message.

The time for politicking in Hawke's Bay is over and it is concerning that so many would leverage off the situation to push their own agenda.

A large number of farmers have called me in the last few weeks.

They have been deeply concerned for the people of Havelock North and their message is clear, that all want clean water and quickly.

Farmers know we can continue to do things better; it's called progress, so if certain people stopped finger pointing, blaming and shaming, hopefully we can work together as a community to plan and build a better future.

- Will Foley is Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay provincial president.