He told Richard Rennie about his objections to the plan and why they won’t dent his commitment to the environment.
The one-size-fits-all approach to managing nutrient losses in Waikato’s Healthy Rivers plan has prompted Lochiel Farm manager Kim Robinson to challenge it.
And it ignored the efforts of farmers like him to put the environment into better shape than when he first stepped into his manager’s role 27 years ago.
Back then Lochiel was typical of western Waikato hill country farms that had been claimed from the bush for sheep farming. It was raw with sediment loss, erosion, no riparian strips and few native plantings.
Today, with hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on water reticulation, sediment traps, trees and riparian strips along its many waterways, Robinson can honestly point to a property more than exceeding what the Healthy Rivers plan intended farms to achieve.
And he has the data to prove all the expenditure was for more than just aesthetic appeal.
Since 2007 Robinson has been taking samples of water from the property’s main stream, the Maungatia, that drains about two-thirds of the 3500ha property near Glen Murray.
He took the samples from two points, one at the stream’s source and the other on the property’s northern boundary where the Maungatia met the Opuatia Stream, which in turn ran to the Waikato River.
He measured nitrates and phosphate levels, two key nutrients the Healthy Rivers plan aimed to reduce from the regional catchment.
Over the last 10 years the levels had remained low, recording concentrations of 0.12-0.14 parts per million for nitrates and 0.017-0.018 for phosphorus, well below maximum allowable World Health Organisation levels for drinking water standards.
Nutrient modelling several years ago when the property was applying nitrogen fertiliser indicated losses of only about 13kg of nitrogen a hectare a year.
“And we are not using that fertiliser now so we are probably lower than that, nearer 10-11kg nitrogen.”
And northern Waikato did not have leaching soils that leaked nitrogen and phosphorus into water systems.
In light of those figures it was easy to understand Robinson’s anger at councillors’ response during the crucial meeting that accepted the Healthy Rivers plan for the public submission stage.
“One of the councillors asked if farmers were doing enough in the catchment, to which the response was ‘no they were not’.”
Like many sheep and beef farmers in the region he felt the collaborative process behind Healthy Rivers had not entirely supported the dry stock sector, leaving it short on allowable nitrogen losses and wearing the bill for waterway fencing and stock exclusion.
He acknowledged Lochiel’s stock were not entirely watered through a reticulated system, with a small number of paddocks requiring waterways for drinking.
However, the system meant most stock were drinking from troughs, a preferred source for stock anyway. Like many properties it would be impractical to fence all waterways at Lochiel.
“But having the troughs in paddocks means the cattle won’t go into the river anyway, they don’t need to.
“I feel particularly sorry for the younger guys I know around here who have less choice about how they farm and are really concerned over the fencing costs they will face to exclude stock.
“It’s pretty heavy-handed in this catchment where we all tend to farm in a similar way on the hill country and all keep our nutrient losses low.”
Robinson would be submitting on the Healthy Rivers plan, seeking greater flexibility over how mitigation was dealt with rather than the one-fence-fits-all approach applied on land over a slope of 15 degrees.
“And I know I will not be the only one. There will be a real fight over this in the coming months.”
But his and other farmers’ commitment to cleaner, appealing farming environments remained as firm as ever and he acknowledged the value those environments played in shaping consumer perceptions and desire for quality protein products.
“This plan could well be part of that story but it will have to be modified to get farmers on board entirely with it.”
