Oct 8, 2021
Outlook: Cloudy patches across the country but fining up in some places.
It is a busy period in Wellington as submissions on several freshwater regulations are due on 7 October (for stock exclusion, freshwater farm plans and intensive winter grazing) and 27 October (for wetlands).
Overall for intensive winter grazing there has been a considerable shift towards most of the recommendations contained in the Southland NES Advisory Group report - this is very helpful and should allow most farmers to continue to winter graze their stock by completing an intensive winter grazing management plan.
Freshwater farm plans are looking promising although logistical challenges exist for roll out of these across the country and further industry-government discussion is needed to ensure that the plans only contain the necessary information to demonstrate understanding of environmental risks and appropriate management to minimise or eliminate the risk.
Further work is required for stock exclusion regulations as the refined low-slope map that defines areas that need to exclude stock from waterways is still not sufficient to reflect actual risk to waterways at the farm and paddock level.
DINZ and NZDFA made a combined submission for stock exclusion and farm plans and together with B+LNZ will make a further submission on intensive winter grazing. These submissions will be available for viewing on the MfE website in due course.
