ENVIRONMENT | FRESHWATER
Several hill country farmers spoken to were concerned about the cost of fencing waterways.
Concern over stock exclusion rules BY: SANDRA TAYLOR
STOCK EXCLUSION ANGST
he Government’s Essential Freshwater regulations were announced in August and aspects have caused concern in the farming community. The scale and pace of new regulations is the reason given for a drop in farmer morale with recent UMR research. It showed only 32% of farmers in the southern South Island had confidence in the future of New Zealand’s sheep and beef industry. This is down 27% on the last quarter. Nationally, 46% of farmers surveyed were confident in the future of their industry. Farmers spoken to by Country-Wide have expressed particular concern about stock exclusion regulations and uncertainty about winter grazing requirements such as pugging rules and the practicality of resowing dates.
By July 1, 2023, all dairy cattle (except dairy grazers) and pigs must be excluded from rivers and lakes more than a metre wide with a minimal set-back of three metres. By July 1, 2025, dairy grazers must all also be excluded from all lakes and rivers along with beef cattle and deer where the land is low slope (less than 10 degrees) as identified on Ministry for the Environment maps. Several hill country farmers spoken to were concerned about the cost of fencing waterways with one farmer having 8km of river frontage through his extensive farm. They were also worried about the infestation of woody weeds within fenced riparian margins. On a recent Ministry for the Environment webinar, chief adviser Bryan Smith, said under the regulations, there is no requirement to fence off lakes, rivers and some wetlands, it is simply a requirement to keep stock three metres
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away from these water bodies. “You may use an electric or temporary fence or elect not to put cattle, deer or pigs in that paddock.” He acknowledged there will be also be natural barriers, such as bluffs that will keep stock away from waterways therefore fencing would not be required. Another area of concern for farmers, Federated Farmers and Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is the Ministry for the Environment’s low slope maps. These maps, at the heart of stock exclusion regulations, incorrectly identify areas of low slope land parcels or partparcels that have a mean slope is less than or equal to 10 degrees. Smith said the ministry acknowledged the anomaly and said the way they were mapped, which looked at the average slope of land parcels, picked up large areas of steeper land. This type of country was not originally intended to be captured by the regulations. Federated Farmers’ Chris Allen says the low slope maps take in some hill and high country that is so steep, the farmers would need to pay for helicopters to lift poles and other supplies in order to fence the waterways. The increase in pastoral land now defined as ‘low slope’ has increased from the 3.8 million hectares consulted on by the government in 2019, to 6 million ha in the MfE maps now published. Smith said the minister has asked staff to look at the maps and MfE is also seeking farmer feedback to get a sense of the scale of the inaccuracies and possible solutions. They are asking farmers to fill in an online form but farmers can also email MfE directly. MfE expects to have solutions for the minister to consider within the next five months. B+LNZ is calling for MfE to scrap the low slope maps altogether. The organisation’s environmental policy manager Corina Jordan says while B+LNZ acknowledges the basic principle of the rule and agrees more intensively farmed stock on low slope land should be fenced from rivers or streams over one metre wide, extensively grazed land, including land above 10 degrees, should not require stock exclusion by fencing. “Given the scale of the inaccuracies, B+LNZ would prefer the map was scrapped
Country-Wide
December 2020
