It’s no insidious creep; it’s coming like a freight train.
Horizons has been through it, Southland and Otago farmers are dealing with it and Canterbury farmers are still coming to grips with rules that require many of them to slash nitrate leaching by 30%.
Don’t think they don’t apply just because you’re not farming in a particular region – one way or another there will be consents to farm, nutrient limits and frequent auditing of how farmers measure up.
In this special report we’re looking closely at the new rules and what they mean.
Next month we’ll take a look at what tools are available to farm within limits and what research is giving hope that environmental expectations will be able to be met while still farming profitably.
By 2022, farmers dairying between the Waimakariri and Rakaia Rivers in Canterbury will have to show how they’re going to slash their nitrate leaching by a whopping 30%.
By 2037 they’ll have to be achieving those levels and if not, based on a proposed plan, known as Variation One to Canterbury’s Land and Water Regional Plan, they’ll be a prohibited activity.
But that 30% figure doesn’t just come off farmers’ current nitrate leaching levels; it will have to come off an as-yet undetermined leaching loss number deemed possible under good management practice.
Those numbers are expected to be available to farmers by June next year and will be released as the Matrix of Good Management (MGM).
They’ll vary depending on soil type, rainfall and land-use, all assuming good management practice is being carried out onfarm.
The matrix numbers are being developed collaboratively by Environment Canterbury (ECan), primary sector groups, scientists and farmers, with the results keenly, if not nervously, awaited.
Good management practice is defined with industry input and is spelled out in a schedule attached to the proposed plan variation that covers all farms in the Selwyn Waihora zone, which extends from the sea back to the foothills and lies between the Rakaia and Waimakariri Rivers.
The expectation to meet MGM numbers in 2017 is likely to apply to all farmers across Canterbury.
The plan and Variation One have immediate impacts too and most farmers in the red zones have effectively had nitrate leaching levels capped with the council opting for a grandparenting system that restricts nitrate losses to those of the past.
It’s a stop-gap measure until the MGM numbers come into effect and farmers must calculate their average loss from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2013, to create their baseline.
This season farmers in the red zones must calculate their four-year rolling average again and then do so every year until 2017 using Overseer.
According to the plan as it stands, that annually re-calculated rolling average must not exceed the baseline but ECan commissioners have noted there will be some discretion when it comes to enforcing this as the aim is to hold nitrate leaching and educate farmers rather than spend time prosecuting them.
Variation One is further complicated by the inclusion of Central Plains Water (CPW) irrigation scheme within the zone area. The scheme’s been allocated a total nitrogen load limit, which has controversially moved up and down because of errors admitted by ECan.
Assumptions to calculate the limit include an extra 12,000ha being converted from dryland to irrigated dairying with those farms immediately meeting the 30% below MGM number.
Existing dairy farmers in the scheme were modelled as achieving MGM numbers by 2017 and the 30% reduction by 2022.
Ultimately though it will be up to CPW how it allocates its total load.
From 2017 all farms larger than 50ha within the Selwyn Waihora Zone that leach more than 15kg N/ha/year will require a farm environment plan and must have a consent.
Farmers in other red zones must have a resource consent from January, 2017, if they leach more than 20kg N/ha/year.
In both situations the consents are necessary regardless of whether the farms achieve MGM levels at that time.
At recent ECan meetings, organised by DairyNZ to explain the changes to worried farmers, ECan senior planner Tami Woods said the council is gearing up for the consenting process and doesn’t believe there will be an undue bottleneck.
The new rules also apply to dairy support land although from 2022 leaching must be cut by 17% of MGM levels set specifically for a dairy support land use, while arable farms must cut leaching by 7% and dryland sheep and beef by 10%.
These varying reductions by sector are likely to be challenged as the proposed variation now goes through its submission phase.
