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Horse trial triumph MAC mag page 2
Zoe McNeilly of Wanaka riding Strictly Kosha in the cross-country phase of the Central Otago Pony Club Horse Trial at Cromwell Racecourse on the weekend. Zoe, who rides for the Hawea/Wanaka Pony Club, competed successfully in the dressage, cross country and show-jumping phases, winning her section of the horse trial. See sports results, page 15, for more information.
Your footprint
PHOTO: iNFINITY IMAGES.
page 3
Dairy farm proposed Sue Wards
Going the distance page 5
Keeping warm page 11
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www.thewanakasun.co.nz
A large scale dairy farm is on the cards for Hawea Flat, and if developed will be the first dairy farm in the Upper Clutha. The property facing conversion to dairy is understood by the Wanaka Sun to be a 2400ha sheep farm, on four separate titles, with boundaries onto Kane, Watkins and Camphill Roads and the Hawea and Clutha Rivers. Project manager Peter Hook, a farming consultant from Lake Hawea, said “The property has changed hands and a major development is being looked at, including large scale irrigation.” The property’s new owner, Jim Cooper, who is based in Darwin but has family links to Wanaka, was not available for comment. While local farmers have been grazing dairy cows for some
time, this would be the first dairy farm in the Upper Clutha (the closest is in Omakau). “It will bring a few changes to the district,” Lake Hawea farmer and former Otago Federated Farmers president Richard Burdon said of the planned conversion. Dairy development in this region “was never a matter of if, it was a matter of when,” he said. “It should be quite exciting and it will offer a lot of employment opportunities.” The project team is said to be in the process of preparing consent applications for irrigation. The Otago Regional Council director of resource management Selva Selvarajah said any consents would be unlikely to be notifiable and, as long as the planned activities comply with the rules in the water plan, consents would not even be required, he said.
Effluent disposal to land is a permitted activity. “We don’t control land use activities,” he said. “People could change from sheep to vineyards to dairy to forestry without telling us.” ORC land resources manager Susie
dairy chairman David Wilson said a property of 2400ha would need to run at least 1000 cows for the figures to stack up. “I’d be encouraging them if I was you guys. It’s fairly inevitable that progress will be made
People get a bit emotive about it at times, but it’s just going to be growing grass. McKeague said the council has checks and balances to ensure good farming practice is being implemented. The Regional Plan: Water contains “some quite stringent requirements” and the ORC checks every dairy farm in Otago every year to assess their effluent systems and waterways management, she said. Otago Federated Farmers
that way,” he said. “People get a bit emotive about it at times, but it’s just going to be growing grass.” Dairy effluent is well monitored both by Fonterra and the regional council, David said, with dairy farmers being proactive in terms of fencing waterways, planting trees and putting in effluent systems.
However Otago Fish and Game Council chief executive Neil Watson said intensive agriculture such as dairy farming has the potential to damage local waterways. “There are no grounds for being confident that dairy farms will be able to manage their impact on water quality – it’s not happening,” he said. “There’s a direct relationship between land use intensification and poor water quality.” He cited animal waste run off, waste percolation into ground water and effluent disposal as issues to be carefully managed. “When people set up they need to look carefully at how they manage dairy shed effluent and run-off from farm paddocks, because the current practices aren’t achieving the desired results regarding water quality.” TXT THE WANAKA SUN
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