Friday, March 29, 2024

Feds say plan change unworkable

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Waikato’s Health Rivers plan change 1 is confusing, poorly worded and unworkable farmers at a meeting near Lake Karapiro said.
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While the intent of some rules is right the way they are written goes against the intention to improve water quality in the Waikato and Waipa Rivers, Federated Farmers’ regional policy manager Paul Le Miere told about 30 farmers.

The meeting was one of several seeking farmer feedback before the federation lodges its appeal to the Environment Court.

“They’re trying to do the right thing but the way it’s written it doesn’t really work.”

The way it is written is critical because that it how it is interpreted by the council, he said.

A prime example are the rules around stock exclusion in winter on 6e classed land, which the hearing panel that designed the decisions version of PC1 defined as highly erodible. 

This ruling covers any form of feed cover. 

“There’s a presumption from the hearing panel that the land is highly erodible – it isn’t – there’s a huge amount of 6e land that is gentle rolling land.”

It is estimated about 35% of Waikato’s drystock land and 25% of dairy land falls into that land class and has created a mismatch between what hearing panel’s intent and reality on farms, he said.

There is also nothing in PC1 to account for new versions of Overseer, which could recalculate a farm’s nitrogen leaching rate and move a farm from a lower to a higher intensity.

It is also unclear when the rules kick in because of confusion between existing user rights under the Resource Management Act and the new rules in PC1.

Le Miere said when he asked for clarification he was told by the Waikato Regional Council it will be assessed case by case.

“We want some actual guidance to farmers.” 

PC1’s schedules outline the various rules around stock exclusion and rates, farm plans and input levels.

In many cases there are instances where the rules overlap and are written throughout the document in slightly different ways, creating much confusion, he said.

Le Miere said the good part of the latest version of PC1 is the move away from the nitrogen reference point and replacing it with a new nitrogen leaching rate that acts as a trigger for a resource consent.

“We fought very hard to do it a different way,” he said.

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