Speculation has been strong among the region’s farming community about whether the council would seek access to farm financial records as part of the information the plan would require.
Schedule B in the plan laid out the information requirements for properties greater than 20ha, including furnishing a Farm Environment Plan (FEP) to manage losses of contaminants from farms.
The FEPs were expected to be part of industry-led and endorsed environment management schemes to ensure consistency and accuracy.
In the unlikely event some farmers chose to opt out of an industry scheme, they would be required to apply for a resource consent and file an FEP.
They would also have to report back to the council on their management of it.
Farmer concerns were spurred by a notification letter sent from the council to a farmer in the Lake Taupo catchment, itself subject to land use consent to farm under Variation 5, which was developed to protect the lake’s water quality.
That notification asked the farmer to file a full set of monthly stock reconciliations, invoices on livestock sale and purchase, grazing invoices and feed and nutrient data.
It also asked him to forward annual accounts for the property for the past financial year.
However, not all farmers in the Taupo catchment were providing financial information.
It was understood about a third of the 80 farming consent holders provided farm account details to enable Overseer calculations on nutrient and feed inputs to be calculated accurately, with the remainder providing enough information through physical onfarm data.
Waikato Federated Farmers president Chris Lewis challenged any plans that might include a requirement to furnish financial data.
“A good management plan could be done by a registered farm consultant rather than having your business micro-managed by filing IRD accounts to the council. No other authority takes this approach. It is authoritarian and intrusive.”
However, he also cautioned the Healthy Rivers plan was in its early stages, with submissions still to close off in early March.
“There are aspects of this plan farmers think are good but others like this that are worrying. We are also concerned about how secure that information would be, given councils tend to leak like sieves.”
Like farmers or anyone in the community affected by Healthy Rivers, council staff could submit on the Healthy Rivers plan. That would provide an avenue for any increases in information requirements, should they maintain more information was required.
Full submissions would become public on March 8.
The council was keeping the door open on exactly what information farmers would have to give.
A spokesman said the council was still working through the detail of the exact reporting requirements farmers would have to meet under their FEPs, with discussion with relevant farming sectors about the shape of the industry-led schemes.
“There are also new requirements for farmers to register their property and provide information about their land use and nitrogen losses to (the) council. Many of these reporting requirements will be new to most farmers.”
