But Wairakei Pastoral maintains the proposed change in land use prompted by the notification will have little, if any, impact on the catchment.
Wairakei leases central North Island properties to Pamu (Landcorp) and has converted 17,000ha of its 25,700ha forestry estate to pasture since 2004.
The company applied in November 2017 to Waikato Regional Council to convert a further 1300ha from trees to pasture (Farmers Weekly, April 13 2018).
The council has required the company to re-apply under Plan Change 1, also known as Health Rivers, conditions.
The PC1 conditions now class the conversion from trees to pastoral farming as non-complying, requiring a resource consent.
In its revised consent application Wairakei said the area was lawfully established as farmland through the consents process it applied through in 2016.
It said the land use change being sought is for a nominally small change on 5% of the Wairakei estate.
The group questioned if the same percentage applied to an average sized Waikato dairy farm would have attracted the same level of interest by external parties.
It also proposes to convert 6% of its farmland to forestry, meaning more than a third of the estate will be held as forestry.
Because the areas to be authorised by the consent are already being farmed by Pamu, Wairakei maintains there are no new effects expected from future land use changes.
When the move was revealed last autumn, farmer and environmental groups were concerned about the potential extra nitrogen losses the conversion might bring should the land be put into dairying.
Pressure was put on the council to make the application a publicly notifiable one.
But Wairakei’s assessment is there will be an overall reduction in farming related effects from the move in terms of nitrogen losses and contaminant run-off.
Federated Farmers Waikato president Andrew McGiven said given the size of the proposed conversion and the corporate nature of the operator, a publicly notified hearing is the most appropriate process.
“They are a large operator and have a number of neighbours.”
The proposed land use change comes in the shadow of Healthy Rivers, aiming to cap nitrogen losses in the Waikato catchment.
Opponents to the conversion say it might drop another 60 tonnes of nitrogen a year into the catchment if stocked for dairying.
But McGiven said his understanding is Wairakei has done some comprehensive water study analysis to show the impact will be minimal.
Wairakei confirmed considerable time and resources have been spent to provide the council with an updated response.
McGiven said if PC1 moves to more of a sub-catchment approach of allocated nitrogen, as supported by the Feds, an increase in nitrogen losses could affect what existing farmers can have allocated, raising issues of fairness.
Pamu leases half the 25,000ha estate and aims to increase to 14,000ha running deer, beef, sheep milking and 20,500 cows.
A Pamu spokesman said the consent should be publicly notified to ensure all parties have a chance to be heard on its environmental implications.
With the Healthy Rivers plan now notified and receiving submissions, Pamu said it makes sense to have more clarity on how the plan will be implemented before proceeding with the application.
Pamu is committed to keeping nitrate leaching as low as possible and definitely within agreed limits.
It understands the application is not a new conversion and does not involve an increase of its dairy activities above those earlier indicated
The council has not received any indication from Wairakei Pastoral about whether it will proceed with the application now it is required to be public.
