“We are supportive of FEPs as a tool to improve environmental management on-farm but we do not support costly certification and audit requirements for all farms regardless of the nature and scale of activities on site or the environment in which the farm is operating,” chief executive David Baines says.
Most outdoor pig farms don’t do many of the activities which the plans address, including irrigation, using synthetic fertilisers or winter grazing
“NZ Pork supports an approach where farms evaluated as lower risk by regional councils by virtue of the scale, nature or location of their operation would develop and implement a simplified version of a full farm environment plan.
“This would still address the environmental circumstances on their properties but wouldn’t require sign-off or independent auditing by a third party. This would save costs for both farmers and ratepayers and allow the focus to remain on higher-risk farming activities.
“This will ultimately depend on definitions written into the regulations and we will be pressing for clarity to ensure consistent implementation of the rules.”
NZ Pork welcomes clarification from the Government that controls on feedlots and stock holdings will not include pigs and the decision not to require existing stock exclusion fences to be relocated because most pig farmers have already fenced off their waterways.
It also supports the delay in the inclusion of bottom lines for dissolved reactive phosphorus and dissolved inorganic nitrogen to allow for more investigation into the environmental and economic impacts.
“NZ Pork backs the broad intent of the Essential Freshwater plan but we will be looking closely at the details of the rules when they are developed to ensure they are fair, practicable and consistent,” Baines said.
NZ Pork is working to ensure every commercial pig farmer has done an environmental assessment and has a plan to manage the environmental risks and opportunities on their farms. It is also promoting the adoption of Good Farming Practice principles on farm to support improvements in the ecological health of freshwater environments.
