The health of rivers like the Rangitīkei is a key focus for Government. Photo / file
Sheep and beef farmers are feeling uncertain about the future as the newest wave of freshwater reform hits, Rangitīkei farmer Richard Morrison says.
Meanwhile, Horizons Regional Council chief executive Michael McCartney worries that Government's drive to get freshwater policy in place by 2024 will restrict consultation - while imposing new rules.
With a long engagement process a compromise can be reached, he said. With no compromise people turn to litigation and the council could be back in the Environment Court.
"That is probably where we will end up."
But a spokesman for Environment Minister David Parker said a new streamlined planning process had been put in place to help councils achieve that timetable.
It includes a shortened hearing and determination process run by the Freshwater Hearing Panel, appointed by the Chief Freshwater Commissioner, with limited rights of appeal to the Environment or higher courts.
The measures put in place in September 2020 are justified by the problem we have to solve, the spokesman said.
"The aim is to stop further degradation of our waterways, show a noticeable improvement in five years and return them to health in a generation. It is very widely supported by the public and the policy is broadly settled."
What is new is the requirement for councils to give effect to Te Mana o Te Wai, by protecting the health and wellbeing of water and providing for human needs before enabling other uses.
In the Horizons Region the council, working with tāngata whenua, communities and industry, will have to set freshwater objectives, and a timeframe for achieving them.
Horizons is preparing Information about each of the region's catchments, as a starting point for conversations with communities about what they want.
Bottom lines have been set by Government, but the communities can aspire to do better.
If they cannot meet the bottom lines, they will have to decide what to change. Some of those changes may be drastic, councillor Nicola Patrick said.
"It could be changes in stocking rates and types of farming operations and types of horticultural operations."
Parker's spokesman conceded the freshwater package would have an impact on farm practices and may cause land use to change.
Operating the freshwater package will cost the council an estimated $10 to $15 million.
"Local government has said no more legislation without a cheque. What's the regional sector doing about trying to get some help in financing this huge undertaking?" councillor Bruce Gordon asked at a meeting this month.
McCartney said the reforms were not easy to navigate. People want improvement in waterways, Parker is especially focused on it and Government appears to be non-negotiable about the deadline. Councils are expected to have regional policy statements and plans in place by 2026, with notification due by 2024.
"We need to remind Government that ultimately the ratepayers will bear the cost," McCartney said.
Dairy farmers have faced a lot of regulation, and councillor Alan Benbow said some in Tararua are leaving the industry as a result. Sheep and beef farmers are the next to be targeted.
"In my view the sheep and beef industry will feel the weight of the Government regulation more strongly than dairy," Horizons' strategy and regulation manager Nic Peet said.
Benbow imagined the new bottom line for applying synthetic nitrogen fertiliser to pasture is aimed at Canterbury, and the bottom line for intensive winter grazing is aimed at Southland.
But Peet said the intensive winter grazing rules could trigger 1000 new consents in the Horizons Region, unless they are modified by input from a Southland group whose report is being considered by ministers.
The stock holding rules could trigger another 500 new consents, Peet said, especially for people holding beef cattle over winter.
The council has about 5000 active consents across the region, and would usually only process about 350 new ones a year.
Morrison said uncertainty about the rules that came into force in September is the hard bit. But the policy is "broadly settled", and intensive winter grazing practices are the only area still subject to change, the spokesman said.
Farmers also feel that they have already adopted best practice, Morrison said.
"There's a feeling that I have been doing all the good stuff for the last 10 years and surely now I'm able to carry on doing that."
Freshwater farm plans will be mandatory, but there are as yet no consultants who can approve them and no agreement about keeping them nationally consistent and preserving the work that has gone into previous plans.
One of the main concerns is IWG - intensive winter grazing - the ways farmers keep stock fed during winter, when grass growth slows.
The options include applying synthetic nitrogen fertiliser to pasture, feeding hay or silage or palm kernel on feedpads or in feedlots, or grazing animals on winter crops. Each of them has an environmental downside, Morrison said.
Next winter farmers will still be able to graze animals on winter crops, provided the area is no larger than previously and provided they apply for consent by October 31.
There are pretty good best practice guidelines for this form of winter grazing, Morrison said, but it's not clear whether it will be permitted in the following winter.
"Is the writing on the wall for that practice? It seems a shame to take that [tool] wholesale out of the toolbox."
Essential freshwater requirements
• Consent to put more than 190kg of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser per hectare of pasture
• Consent to increase area used for dairying by 10ha or more
• Consent to turn more than 10ha of forest into pasture
• Consent for earthwork altering wetlands and rivers
• Progressively more stock excluded from waterways, excluding sheep
• Freshwater farm plans required
• Winter forage crops only on land less than 10 degree slope
• Winter forage crops limited to 10 per cent or less of farm
• Bare soil from winter forage crops resown by October 1
• Winter forage crops at least 5m from any area where water flows
Students remain 'in the dark' about what comes next.