Canterbury Environmental Policy

Parts of the Canterbury Land & Water Regional Plan (LWRP) were made operative on 1 September 2015. This means everyone in Canterbury needs to be working in accordance with the rules in the Plan.

The LWRP has new rules for farming activities relating to nutrient management. The aim of these is to maintain current water quality and prevent further increases in nutrient losses before the catchment limit setting process is finalised. This will be done through a Zone Committee and community consultation. The results will form a sub-regional plan change to the LWRP.

What does this mean for farmers?

All farmers in Canterbury need to operate within the farming activity rules, unless you are in the Hurunui & Waiau catchment or Selwyn Te Waihora. Sub-regional planning processes which can result in different rules are underway in Hinds Plains, South Canterbury Coastal Streams, Wairewa and Waitaki. However, the current Land and Water Regional Plan rules still apply to these areas until a sub-regional Plan Changes become operative.

To continue to farm within nutrient management rules, most dairy farmers will require:

• a farming activity resource consent
• a nitrogen baseline and
• a farm environment plan.

The rules vary depending on which colour nutrient allocation zone your farm is in.

Plan Change 5

Plan Change 5 (PC5) to the Land and Water Regional Plan will require farmers to manage nutrient losses to help improve water quality in the region.

PC5 incorporates a Farm Portal: an online tool for estimating nitrogen losses from farming activities operated at good management practice (GMP).   

Independent Hearing Panel recommendations to PC5 were recently adopted by Environment Canterbury (ECan).

We acknowledge the significant water quality and quantity issues facing Canterbury and we’re working with ECan to support farmers in understanding and implementing these changes.

For more information about PC5 visit the ECan website.

• Timeframes

  Concerned the timeframes for compliance of property-scale nitrogen loss limits were too tight, we asked they be extended by 12 months. The Hearing Panel agreed, and now the timeframes for compliance are as follows:

  • Compliance with the Baseline GMP loss rate is not required until after 30 June 2020.
  • Compliance with the GMP loss rate is not required until after:             
  • 1 July 2017 in the Lake Zones
  • 1 January 2018 in the Orange Zones
  • 1 July 2018 in Red Zones
  • 1 January 2019 in Green or Light Blue Zones

  However, in areas affected by PC5, i.e. areas without sub-regional nutrient management rules, ECan is offering the ability to put your consent application ‘on hold’ until there is more certainty around PC5 decisions.

  In addition, for those who need a consent under the operative Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP), the requirement for achieving baseline GMP Loss Rates (as calculated by the Farm Portal) under PC5, will not be required until these provision are beyond legal appeal. However, consent holders will still be held to their Nitrogen Baseline in line with the currently operative nutrient management rules.

• Farm portal

  DairyNZ supported, at the conceptual level, the development of the Farm Portal, although had concerns with some of the equations used to model the on-farm GMPs. We believe that OVERSEER estimated nitrogen losses from a farm operating at GMP may differ significantly from the values derived from these equations. During the hearing we proposed an alternative nitrogen fertiliser model which was not accepted. Our concerns have not changed and we are committed to working with farmers and Ecan to resolve these issues as they arise.

• Alternative consenting process

  ECan have provided a provision for an alternative consent option if the model used in Farm Portal creates numbers that don’t make sense. Farmers who encounter any of the below situations should contact their certified nutrient management advisor for assistance:

  • when a nutrient budget cannot be generated
  • when the Farm Portal cannot produce a GMP loss rate, or
  • when the GMP loss rate produced by the Farm Portal is considered to be ‘erroneous’. 

• Farm Portal - Irrigation

  We have some concerns about the implications of the recommended changes to the irrigation equations within the Farm Portal. We consider the compliance requirements under PC5 may be unachievable for irrigated dairy farmers with current irrigation infrastructure. We believe farmers may have to fund considerable costs over a short timeframe to comply with the plan change requirements.

• Next steps

  Our focus is to continue to support dairy farmers through the implementation of PC5. We will be working with ECan to get absolute clarity on the implications of the plan changes and the requirements for dairy farmers in the affected catchments.  We will communicate regularly on what implementation measures are being developed and what you need to do to meet the new PC5 requirements.  

  If you have any concerns or want advice, please contact IrrigationNZ or DairyNZ.

Terms you need to know

• Nitrogen Baseline
• Farm Environment Plans
• Farming activity resource consent
• Matrix of Good Management Practice

Guidance on nutrient budgets

• Why do I get different Overseer numbers?
• Is my Overseer file suitable for a consent application?

Zone specific information

• Kaikoura Zone
• Hurunui Zone
• Waimakariri Zone
• Christchurch West Melton Zone
• Selwyn Te Waihora Zone
• Banks Peninsula Zone
• Ashburton Zone
• Orari Temuka Opihi Pareora Zone
• Upper Waitaki Zone
• Lower Waitaki Zone