Farmers need to have a say on freshwater plan
Farmers in Northland are committed to reducing our environmental footprint, including improving water quality. However, we are concerned the proposed Northland Regional Council (NRC) freshwater plan change will lead to additional and unnecessary cost and consent requirements that fail to reflect our extensive and continued work to improve the overall environmental sustainability of their land and community catchments.
The proposed changes also do not consider that all owners of land over 20ha in New Zealand will be required to have a freshwater farm plan (FW-FP) by 2025.
The NRC is currently consulting on this proposed draft freshwater plan change.
Many of the options NRC is proposing are more stringent than existing national regulations for the region and NZ. Under the proposal, for example, farmers would need consent to graze land that is at and above a 25-degree slope. We’d also need consent for farm effluent irrigation to land, which is currently a permitted activity.
A contracted NRC inspector already assesses most dairy farms on, among other things, effluent management. This proposed consent requirement adds another layer of cost and administration – which ultimately gets passed to ratepayers.
The NRC draft plan also outlines changes to water allocation, new stock exclusion requirements and retirement of highly erodible land. These proposed changes are in addition to existing requirements set out through national legislation.
Over time, all farmers will also need to develop a freshwater farm plan under the national regulations. This will be in addition to what is proposed in the draft regional plan and any consents that might be required. Freshwater farm plans (FW-FPs) identify actions to improve water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase biodiversity, and are tailored to individual farms. Rather than introducing new rules and costs, NRC could work with farmers to achieve the already-identified requirements of individualised FW-FPs.
Farmers in Northland are feeling exhausted after the challenges we faced in 2023 due to weather events, inflation and proposed regulatory changes. We’re struggling to catch up and don’t want more work or duplication. The Northland Dairy Environment Leaders group, comprising a small group of farmers and sector representatives, met regularly in late 2023 to build a collective understanding of the proposal’s implications. As a group, we’d like to encourage all Northland farmers to understand how the proposal could impact their business – and to submit on the NRC draft freshwater plan change to inform the council what will work for farmers, communities and the environment.
Submissions can be done online or in writing via post, with NRC’s consultation closing on March 31, 2024.
For more information, go to: nrc. govt.nz.
Dairy NZ will also submit on behalf of farmers and the sector.
Michelle Ruddell is a Northland dairy farmer and dairy environment leader, committed to creating a sustainable future in dairying and leading by example to reduce onfarm environmental footprint. She chairs Northland Rural Support Trust and is a 2022 Agri-Women’s Development Trust Escalator alumnus. Michelle and her husband Troy farm west of Whangārei.