Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Horizons Regional Council flyovers record Rangitīkei winter grazing practices

Laurel Stowell
By Laurel Stowell
Reporter·Whanganui Chronicle·
14 Jul, 2021 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Feedlots and intensive winter grazing can add sediment, nutrients and faecal coliforms to waterways. Photo / Bevan Conley

Feedlots and intensive winter grazing can add sediment, nutrients and faecal coliforms to waterways. Photo / Bevan Conley

Horizons Regional Council is taking a close look - from the air - at winter grazing practices in the Rangitīkei River catchment.

This week's operation was the first time the council had monitored winter grazing, regulatory manager Greg Bevin said. The Government had required it since setting standards for freshwater in September.

The move was timely, environmental consultant Greg Carlyon said.

Intensive winter grazing can degrade waterways by adding sediment, nutrients and faecal coliforms.

Horizons' monitoring will be done from a plane with staff members taking photographs. It will form a baseline against which the council can measure future improvement.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In time other catchments will get the same flyover treatment. The Rangitīkei is first because it is the most pristine river in the region, and because intensive winter grazing is known to take place there.

Flying was an expensive way to monitor the practice, Bevin said, but it covered a lot more ground than people driving around in vehicles.

The flights will be followed by site visits during which staff will talk to landowners about good and bad practices, and take action against practices that are unacceptable. Action could range across a spectrum, from abatement notices to prosecution.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The council has previously used planes to monitor vegetation clearance and forestry practices. In 2019, it resulted in charges against forestry company John Turkington Ltd - some are still before the court.

For Carlyon the flyover monitoring is great news. He's a former Horizons staff member and now the director of environmental consultancy The Catalyst Group.

Discover more

Farmers asked to focus on winter grazing practices

28 May 05:00 PM

Horizons opens winter grazing consent applications

26 May 01:00 AM

Farmers seminar focuses on water regulations

10 Mar 04:00 PM

It funded its own aerial survey of intensive grazing practices in the Rangitīkei four or five years ago.

"We found an enormous amount of both feedlotting and winter grazing on the margins of the Rangitīkei River," he said.

That finding caused consternation, and "probably" led to the formation of the Rangitīkei catchment group.

He's under the impression things are much better now, because practices have improved in the past few years.

Horizons introduced rules on intensive winter grazing in 2011, but it hadn't monitored the practices or enforced the rules, Carlyon said.

"If you don't go looking, then practices drop off."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It would be helpful if Horizons let the public know what it found in the flyovers, and if it talked about how that was assessed, Carlyon said.

The Government was delaying new requirements for intensive winter grazing until May 1 next year, Bevin said, but it still required the practice not to expand and it expected measurable improvements within 12 months.

People seeing unacceptable practices, such as cattle in waterways, can ring Horizons' pollution hotline, 0508 800 800.

Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Chandulal-Mackay promises 'decisive leadership' as mayor

Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui hosting New Zealand Sports Stacking Championships

Whanganui Chronicle

Legendary Kiwi actor to perform one-man show in Whanganui


Sponsored

NZ’s convenience icon turns 35

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Chandulal-Mackay promises 'decisive leadership' as mayor
Whanganui Chronicle

Chandulal-Mackay promises 'decisive leadership' as mayor

'We can’t continue to play down the middle'.

05 Sep 05:08 PM
Whanganui hosting New Zealand Sports Stacking Championships
Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui hosting New Zealand Sports Stacking Championships

05 Sep 05:00 PM
Legendary Kiwi actor to perform one-man show in Whanganui
Whanganui Chronicle

Legendary Kiwi actor to perform one-man show in Whanganui

05 Sep 05:00 PM


NZ’s convenience icon turns 35
Sponsored

NZ’s convenience icon turns 35

02 Sep 09:23 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP