WATER RETICULATION WORKSHOPS

Following the release of the report 'Economic evaluation of stock water reticulation on hill country', these water reticulation workshops are being run around the Region to promote the findings, integrated with general management of water on-farm. The workshops will cover an overview of the report’s findings, including detailed case studies, engineering and physical planning of water reticulation systems, farm-system design to optimise productivity and minimise environmental impacts, decision-support, while addressing any specific questions participants may have. These workshops are delivered by AgFirst with the support of MPI, Accelerate25 and Beef + Lamb New Zealand

If you are interested in attending any of the below workshops, please contact Erica van Reenen at erica.vanReenen@agfirst.co.nz or on 027 455 5616.

Whanganui                                        Taumarunui
When: 18 July, 2017                           When: 19 July, 2017
Time: 2pm to 5pm                             Time: 9am to midday                          
Where: Kingsgate Hotel                    Where: Central Park Motel

Taihape                                               Pahiatua
When: 20 July, 2017                           When: 21 July 2017
Time: 2pm to 5pm                             Time: 9am to midday
Where: Taihape Golf Club                 Where: Tui Brewery

UPDATE: IMPLEMENTATION OF INTENSIVE FARMING UNDER THE ONE PLAN

Working through the implications of the Environment Court's declarations has raised some really complex issues around matters such as assessing the impact of individual farming operations on all water quality. Put simply, the challenge is translating legal decisions into a practical consenting process.

Our priority is to provide the best guidance that we are able to for applicants needing consents.

Substantial progress is being made on preparing new application forms and guidance material for applicants seeking intensive land use consents under the One Plan. It is expected that revised material, designed to give effect to the Court's decisions, will be available in late July/early August.

In the meantime, Council notes that there is no formal moratorium on consenting intensive land uses, so if a farmer applies for a consent we would need to process it. However, our suggestion is that farmers will benefit from the guidance material that Council is producing for preparing an application. We will continue to monitor consents already granted under the intensive land use rules.

At the same time Council has progressed work on planning advice about whether consents can be granted above table 14.2, the implications for businesses if farmers are required to meet the table and the levels of uncertainty in the science models and predicted in river outcomes. Staff will be reporting to Council in August on these matters.

Our evaluation of the One Plan and the Court process have revealed a number of weaknesses in the current plan which Council will need to address as it seeks to give effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. This is unsurprising for a plan that started out its development back in 2005. Knowledge and policy approaches have moved on in the intervening years.

We recognise that the Court decision has put on hold the plans of a number of farmers to get consents in place. We encourage farmers to continue to make improvements to reduce the environmental impact of their practices. The huge amount of effort that has gone on across catchments is testament to people's willingness to act whether or not it is in the face of regulation.

The table below, highlights the impact these environmentally sustainable changes are having for the better in our water quality. You'll be able to see that the majority are improving in each of the measurements. 

MONITORING SEASON OUTCOMES

The dairy monitoring season for the 2016-2017 financial year has now reached completion. Overall, 550 dairy farms were inspected with approximately 56% of these farms being rated as 'comply - full' with their consent conditions at their inspection regarding their effluent discharge.

Farms that had minor issues to fix on site or were in the process of complying with their consent conditions were rated either 'comply' or 'comply – on track' with these farms accounting for 6% and 1% respectively of those inspected.

Farms that were at risk of non-compliance during the year but were still compliant on the day of inspection or whose on-farm infrastructure was not sufficient, such as effluent storage capacity, were rated 'comply - at risk'. Overall these at risk farms accounted for 26% of the farms monitored this season.

In terms of farms rated 'non compliant' or 'significant non compliant' with their resource consent, as a whole, 11% of the total farms monitored were given either of these ratings. Of these farms that did not comply with consent conditions half of them required a follow- up inspection later in the season to reassess consent conditions after improvements were made to their systems/management.

The trends towards achieving compliance on dairy farms in terms of effluent management are positive, however, a small number of farms still have some improvements to make. These have been discussed both on site with our staff, and in the monitoring reports issued. If you are not sure of your farm's rating please get in touch with the relevant consents monitoring officer.

This season was also the first year of on-site monitoring of the nutrient management land use consents on farm, with the majority of dairy farms fitting within this category being inspected. At present we are working towards assessing nutrient budgets regarding these consents and there will be another report issued to the relevant consent holders in the future. Thank you to the majority of these farms that have been working towards complying with these consents, it has been pleasing to see more stock being permanently excluded from surface water across the Region and also the relevant farms adhering to the requirements of their Sustainable Milk Plans.

Compliance with water abstraction consents in regards to wash-down, cooling, stock drinking, domestic takes and irrigation was also a major focus this season with the compliance results of these inspections being relatively positive. However, if you have received instructions in terms of improvements required to achieve compliance with these consents, please ensure this is undertaken within the timeframes provided on the report. This may include installing a flow meter if your consent requires you to, and having this verified by an accredited installer. Furthermore, if you are abstracting over the permitted activity volumes of 50m3/per day from a bore or 35m3/per day from surface water please ensure you follow the process outlined by the consents monitoring officer on site or in the monitoring report in terms of applying for the relevant resource consents for this abstraction or enforcement action could be considered in future.

Thank you to all the farmers that we visited this season to assess compliance. Our staff appreciated your understanding and willingness to work towards achieving compliance with your consent conditions on farm.

As always we are only a phone call away if you have any questions about anything to do with effluent or water management on-farm give us a call on freephone 0508 800 800 or by email at compliance.shared@horizons.govt.nz.

WATER MATTERS

The Water Matters upgrade on our website has now been finalised and the new consent numbering regime and login is humming. When this went live, our team sent an email to all those who were registered on our old site to re-register with the new site. Of those, 23 have done so. We'd like to remind you to complete this registration process in order to access your water data. Click on the picture below and select the 'Register my account' button to complete the quick form. 

Please do not register immediately before wanting to access your data, allow 5 working days. Once you have filled in the registration form, our staff will match up your details ensuring everything is correct before allowing your login to view your water data. If you are experiencing problems, or would like some help please call free phone 0508 800 800.

If you are keeping manual records of your water take and take more than 5 litres per second, we would like to install telemetry on your flow meter as soon as possible. This will allow you to determine whether the amount of water you think you require is accurate, as well as being able to assess the effects of your water take. The installation cost and maintenance of the telemetry unit is covered by Horizons. Once you have telemetry installed your records will be sent to us automatically saving you time, as you will no longer have to submit your water use records manually to compliance.shared@horizons.govt.nz as per your consent conditions.

If you would like to set up telemetry on your flow meter give our hydrology or consents monitoring team a call on free phone 0508 800 800.

BEST PRACTICE FOR WINTER CROP MANAGEMENT 

It is that time of year again where you’ll be thinking about, or starting to graze stock on crops to tide them over the winter period. Horizons encourage good management practice throughout the process, from the use of buffer strips during cultivation, to paddock management after the crop is finished. Once cows are on the crop, here are some friendly reminders to get the most bang for your buck, while reducing your environmental footprint:

• If you’re grazing stock on sloping land, graze slopes from the top to the bottom. 
   
• Graze low lying areas, and areas closest to waterways last. Protecting these critical source areas for as long as possible will help to reduce runoff from your crop, and can be used instead for the last feed of winter.
   
• Be smart with the time stock spend on the crop, and avoid keeping them on there for long periods of time. This will help reduce the risk of pugging.
   
• Try to avoid leaving stock on the crop during wet periods.
   
• Back fence stock off the crop area that has already been grazed to protect bare land.
   
• As soon as possible, replant the grazed area with pasture, or another crop (catch crop) to use up nitrogen left in the soil to reduce the risk of leaching.

Further information can be found on the Dairy NZ website or by contacting our Rural Advice team on free phone 0508 800 800.