When local and regional government develops new policies, DairyNZ,is representing dairy farmers’ interests by providing compelling economic and scientific evidence, to ensure any changes are workable and result in the desired outcomes to improve the environment.
For more information, contact your local environmental change specialist.
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Northland regional plan
Last updated 19/03/20
The plan has been notified and has been appealed to the environment court.
For more information please visit the Northland Regional Council website.
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Councilors have voted to notify a decisions version of the plan change based on the recommendations of the hearing’s commissioners.
For more information on how the decision affects dairy farmers see the Q&A here.
For more detailed information on the Plan Change decision visit the Waikato Regional Council website.
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For up to date information please visit the Waikato Regional Council website.
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A draft water conservation order was recommended on 17 March 2020, over the Confined and Unconfined Arthur Marble Aquifer and Te Waikoroupū, which were found to have outstanding amenity or intrinsic values as waters in their natural state.
The Order is also recommended to apply to the headwaters of the Takaka River and to its surface water tributaries including the Waingaro River. The Order provides controls on water abstraction and discharges to protect aquifer pressure and water quality.
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The plan covers:
- Providing for existing and additional community and/or stock drinking water supplies.
- Setting environmental flows to sustain environmental, recreational and cultural values present within the Hurunui, Waiau and Jed river systems.
- Allocating water to ensure existing abstractors retain access to water at a similar reliability to current, while also providing access to additional water at higher flows to support further irrigation development.
- Managing groundwater in an integrated way with surface water.
- Nutrient management practises to ensure nutrient concentrations in the mainstems of the Hurunui and Waiau rivers are appropriate to maintain the current water quality.
- Ensuring more efficient use of water.
What farmers need to do.
- Join a collective, almost all the larger irrigated farms are part of AIC environmental collective. Contact your DairyNZ environmental change specialist, Katherine McCusker.
- Have a farm environment plan and nutrient budget and these will be audited
- Follow good management practice to improve water quality, efficient use of water and sustain environmental and cultural values
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Farms in the nutrient allocation zone of Selwyn Te-Waihora Catchment come under Plan Change 1. The farm is required to operate at or below their baseline N loss figure (09/10 to 12/13) which needs to be consistent with good management practices (baseline files need to be updated to reflect GMP practices) from the 2017/18 season. Dairy farms require a further 30% reduction and 22% for dairy support blocks from their baseline figures by 2022.
If the property is not part of Central Plains Water Ltd, is > 10 ha and it has more an N loss of > 15 kg N/ha/yr, or is in the cultural sensitive/values zone or phosphate risk zone, it requires a farming activity land use consent including a farm environment plan. If is part of Central Plains Water, it comes under their environmental management and the scheme consent.
All farms that have a farming land use consent or are part of an irrigation scheme consent must follow good management practice checked by an audit
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The nutrient allocation sub-zone of Hinds (lower) between Hinds and Rangitata River, is under Plan Change 2.
What farmers need to do.
- Properties that are leaching more than 15 kg N/ha/year and more than 5 ha in size must have a farm environmental plan (FEP)
- A farming activity land use consent by July 2017 unless they are part of an irrigation scheme. If a farm is part of an irrigation scheme it comes under the scheme environmental management and consent that manages nutrients.
- Properties are required to submit their 2009/10 to 2012/13 OVERSEER nutrient budgets to form the baseline nutrient loss figure. From the 2017/18 season, unless part of an irrigation scheme, farms will be required to operate at or below their baseline N loss figure and be consistent with good management practices (baseline files need to be updated to reflect GMP practices).
- All farms that have a farming land use consent or are part of an irrigation scheme consent must follow good management practice checked by an audit
- Properties leaching more than 20 kg N/ha/year will be required to progressively reduce their N loss beyond good management practice levels by 15% by 2025, 25% by 2030 and 36% by 2035.
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Plan Change 3 manages land and water in the coastal area between the Otaio River in the north and Morven Drain in the south, extending inland to the Hunter Hills.
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The plan change includes new provisions to:
- Protect riverbed and lake habitats where inanga spawn
- Prevent activities encroaching into the beds of Canterbury’s braided rivers
- Require operators of reticulated stormwater systems to manage the quality of stormwater entering the reticulated network
- Protect Community Drinking Water supplies
Plan change 5: Kaikoura, Ashburton, Waimakariri, Orari Temuka Opihi Pareora (OTOP), Banks Peninsular, Upper Waitaki
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Part A: All Canterbury
Introduces new rules for all of Canterbury to require farming activities to operate at Good Management Practice. New rules have been proposed which restrict (as a permitted activity) the area of a property that may be irrigated or used for winter grazing of cattle. In addition, permitted farming activities will be required to prepare a Management Plan and register with their farming activity on the Farm Portal.
Plan Change 5 has included updates of what is required in farm environment plans (FEP) for all farms across Canterbury.
New rules restrict the area of a property that may be used for winter grazing or irrigation. Where these restrictions cannot be met, a resource consent will be required and compliance with nitrogen limits that represent Good Management Practice.
Farms in Kaikoura, Ashburton, Waimakariri, Orari Temuka Opihi Pareora (OTOP), Banks Peninsular, Upper Waitaki should all be operating at or below their Baseline GMP Loss Rate from 2020 onwards. This is the nitrogen loss rate if you were operating at good management practice in the baseline period (2009–2013). The Baseline GMP Loss Rate is determined by an Environment Canterbury tool – the farm portal that takes an Overseer baseline file and adjusts the irrigation and nitrogen fertiliser inputs to good management practice, using a set of proxies. This usually reduces the baseline nitrogen loss rate and therefore the N loss farms now must meet. In some cases, the number from the portal is erroneous and alternatives are required with help from a nutrient management adviser.
Part B: Waitaki
Part B manages water quality in the Waitaki catchment. New water quality outcomes and rules manage a range of activities, including farming, aquaculture and discharges from industrial and community sources. Part B adopts, with modification, the nutrient management framework in Part A of the Plan Change.
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Under Plan Change 7 further N loss reductions beyond the Baseline GMP Loss Rate are expected in 2030 for areas of the Waimakariri and OTOP. Hearings are due in 2020 to determine the reductions.
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Updated 06/04/2020
Otago Regional Council (ORC) has initiated a series of plan changes with the aim to better align its planning framework with national requirements. The adopted plan for the coming plan changes will affect both rural and urban activities. The Water Quality Plan Change and the Water Permits Plan Change are interim changes on their way. They will be followed by the development of a new Water Plan (Land and Water Regional Plan), estimated to be operational in December 2025. The Regional Policy Statement will also need to be reviewed to for example include objectives and policies for land use.
The Land and Water Plan will give effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, and the integrated management of land and water on a Freshwater Management Unit scale. The development of the new plan will take several years, and the aim is that it will be notified by the end of 2023 and operative by the end of 2025.
For up to date information please visit the Good Water in Otago website.
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Southland Water and Land Plan
Updated 26/03/2020
The Proposed Southland Water and Land plan is currently in the appeals phase. In order to effectively work through the appeals process, the plan has been split into two topics (A and B). Topic A will be resolved first and refers to the Court process on higher level Issues, Objectives and Policies. Once Topic A has been resolved, the appeals process will move onto Topic B; the Court process relating to the rules.
At the end of 2019, the court issued an interim decision on Topic A. A small number of decisions were finalised however more evidence/submissions are required. It is likely the appeal could continue for another 12 to 18 months. In the meantime, implementation of the plan is effectively ‘on-hold’. Farmers can prepare for the rules by completing a winter grazing plan and obtaining a Farm Environment Management Plan. For up to date information please visit the Environment Southland website.
