Waikato - Update on Plan Change 1

Waikato Plan Change 1 (PC1) will set rules for agricultural land use to improve water quality in the Waikato and Waipā catchments. Waikato Regional Council (WRC) first notified PC1 in 2016, and following the Council Hearing, a decision was released in April 2020. The process is currently in the final stages in the Environment Court, with farmers expected to start work to comply over 2026. The release of central government policies in 2020 (Farm plans, winter grazing and stock exclusion rules) has had an impact on some of the content of the Plan and caused delays.

If unchanged, the proposed plan change could have had significant implications for farmer consenting and farm plan requirements, as well as minimum standards which need to be met on farm. General information about PC1 is available on the WRC website.

What DairyNZ is doing

DairyNZ has been involved since the start of the consultation process through to our appeal of the ‘decisions version’ released in April 2020. Following mediation, we submitted evidence from several of our experts, including water quality scientists and farm systems specialists, and we funded legal and planning support for a joint case together with Fonterra. Our evidence has aimed to reflect and recognise the work dairy farmers have done for water quality to date and ongoing commitments to improve environmental outcomes.

The Environment Court released an interim decision in late May, which provided parties with decisions around some of the key farming issues.

Key concerns and what this means for you

There are several key resolutions which we have identified in the court’s decision:

Resource Consent Requirements

Many dairy farmers will require consents under the proposed plan change. The decision has changed the consenting status of some higher risk farmers into a controlled activity status, removing the ability for council to decline such consent. This is a practical middle ground from where the plan change started with farmers potentially falling into discretionary activity status which could be declined, giving farmers little certainty.

Drafting gate for who requires a consent

Under the initial proposal, decisions on whether a consent was required relied on Overseer nutrient budget outputs. In turn, a farmer’s consent status determined which rules applied to the farm. While a “drafting gate” approach remains, the court has determined that this can be done using the Nitrogen Risk Scorecard (therefore drafting a farm into a permitted or consented rule). This reduces costs for farmers to determine their activity status, which previously occurred using Overseer run by a suitable qualified person at a cost to the farmer. The NRS utilises already known data through your annual reporting. This also sets a valuable precedent for other regions considering reductions of nutrients via a drafting gate for activity status.

Freshwater Farm Plans and required on-farm change

The decision still relies on Farm Environment Plans as a central tool supporting on-farm action. Depending on the status of the farm, there are two types of paths a dairy farm will take. One is a permitted “standards approach” which requires a farmer, through a Farm Environment Plan, to demonstrate how the list of standards is met (meeting stock exclusion requirements and having a dairy effluent storage system appropriately sized, etc). Those exceeding the drafting gate threshold for your catchment require a consent and are to use a farm plan to demonstrate how they are achieving certain principles. These principles align with industry good farming practice.

Additional requirements

If you are in the Whangamarino catchment, you have a specific resource consenting process.
If you are undertaking land use change, there are specific resource consent requirements.
If you are a mixed land use system, you will need to pay close attention to the definitions and rule status to ensure you are meeting the required regulations.

What do you need to do now?

Unless you are making major changes to land use, you don’t currently need to take any urgent action. Keep doing the great things you do to manage your farm environment while ensuring you continue to meet existing regulations.

While we await a final decision, farmers can review their nitrogen risk reporting from their supply company to provide a better picture of their risk of nitrogen loss (often seen as a Farm Insights Report or Overseer file). The higher your risk or number in comparison to others in your catchment, the more likely you are to fall under the consented status.

The government is also undertaking a reform of the Resource Management Act, which could impose further changes on how land is managed. Read more on the national policy work and any live consultations.

What are the next steps?

A final decision by the Environment Court is unlikely to be released later this year.
We have dedicated significant resource to this process and will continue to do so to ensure we get the best outcomes we can on key issues impacting dairy farmers.
Once decisions are issued by the court we will update all affected farmers in the Waikato Region.
Further changes to Waikato’s freshwater regulations are required under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. DairyNZ will continue to advocate on behalf of dairy farmers in these future processes.