Farmers fear impact of water rules
Dairy farmer Ali Wicksteed is so confident of how good the water on his farm is, he scoops a glassful from a stream on his property and takes a long drink.
Yet he and his wife Nicola fear they could be unable to carry on farming their central Taranaki under new rules proposed in the Government’s Action for Healthy Waterways discussion document.
The changes aim to improve water quality and reduce the amount of pollution entering waterways from cities and farms.
The Wicksteeds’ 220-cow, 80ha farm is one of 126 in the Waingongoro River catchment, a river the document classes as one of the 10 worst polluted in New Zealand. They fear this could mean they’ll soon be forced to operate under a host of restrictions including a nitrate cap.
Taranaki farming leaders have criticised the proposed nitrate limit of one part per million as not achievable and unnecessary in Taranaki, where rivers are fast flowing and have stable or improving ecological life.
The region’s high rainfall means the computer modelling programme, Overseer, used to estimate nutrients lost from a farming system, was not accurate in Taranaki, Nicola Wicksteed said.
She estimated they could have to cut their herd numbers by up to 30 per cent.
‘‘Even if we do what they want us to do, it’s not going to change. We will get all this cost for very little gain.
‘‘We would have to keep our cows inside a barn, cut and carry all their feed and truck all the effluent off the farm and put no fertiliser on, to get to those levels.’’
It’s only the couple’s second season of farm ownership after 14 years sharemilking.
They are just completing the last 20 per cent of the riparian planting previous owners began around the streams on their farm that flow to the Waingongoro River.
The proposed changes had marred what should be a good time.
‘‘Interest rates are low, the Fonterra payout is good and the weather has been good, we should be humming,’’ she said.
‘‘But it feels for us like it’s one thing after another, we are already hearing about synthetic protein and milk, and the activists against meat.’’
Fellow farmer Mark Carter also estimates the new rules would force him to cut his herd size by about 30 per cent.
This would mean a huge drop in production at the same time as compliance costs rose to many thousands.
‘‘That’s why I’m losing sleep at night,’’ he said.
He and his wife, Teresa, left jobs in Auckland in 2010 to return to Mark’s 108ha family farm in Hunter Rd, and bought a share of the farm two years ago.
‘‘Dairy farming is a way of life, we want to bring our children up like that.’’
He said the changes would affect the whole of Taranaki, especially towns and businesses that have farmers as clients.
Former South Taranaki District mayor Ross Dunlop, who farms at Ohawe, said the river was well known for its trout fishery and his own grandchildren enjoyed swimming in it. ‘‘They’re just imposing these rules without good reason,’’ he said.
"They haven’t come and seen us, haven’t seen what we are doing well, what we are already doing with the rivers, planting buffer zones and excluding stock. We are doing it all, we have led the way and it has all been voluntary.’’
■ Submissions on the proposals close on October 31.