1
22-36 Fieldays returns to winter wonderland Vol 21 No 19, May 22, 2023
View online at farmersweekly.co.nz
$4.95 Incl GST
Feds flags freshwater squeeze Neal Wallace
NEWS
A
Water
FURTHER 24,000 farms and orchards will need to have certified Freshwater Farm Plans in place within three years, says Federated Farmers. The delayed policy, part of the Essential Freshwater reforms, will start with pilot programmes in Southland and Waikato this August. These plans will have to be certified within 18 months.
There simply isn’t the workforce out there to do this. I worry farmers are yet again being set up to fail. Colin Hurst Federated Farmers Legislation to enact Freshwater Farm Plans (FWFPs) is still to be introduced but by August 2026 they will be required for farmers with 20ha or more in arable or pastoral use, 5ha or more horticulture or 20ha or more in combined use. These plans are a way to manage the impact of intensive winter grazing but delays in the
legislation’s release means farmers have instead had to get resource consent. Federated Farmers board member Colin Hurst said farmers are not ready. At $6000 a plan they are costly, he said, and time frames are tight given the number needing a FWFP. “Around 10,000 farmers have existing farm environment plans that may be able to be quickly adjusted to the new system, but this leaves 24,000, largely smaller sheep, beef and deer farms, that will need to fork out around $6000 plus for the new plans,” Hurst said in a statement. He questioned how 24,000 FWFPs can be prepared from scratch in just 36 months. “There simply isn’t the workforce out there to do this. I worry farmers are yet again being set up to fail,” Hurst said. He said a golden opportunity has been missed where plans could replace council requirements for a resource consent to farm. Hurst sees FWFPs as a onesize fits all and, despite requiring extensive information, he is concerned plans will become little more than a box-ticking exercise designed to pass an audit. He said it is “hard for farmers to get excited about possibilities for Continued page 3
Steaks are high in breeding decisions Ben Todhunter says a recent trip to the United States confirmed the opportunities for US genetics in the Cleardale Angus beef herd. Photo: Annette Scott
NEWS 6
Ditch in search of a new mob Ditch interrupts normal programming to ask a favour of From the Ridge readers.
OPINION 18
The number of farms going to forestry an unknown factor for the upcoming bull selling season.
A Taranaki doctor-farmer and her husband repeat family’s NZ Dairy Industry achievement.
Researchers find link between heavy metals in pastoral soils and antibioticresistant bacteria.
NEWS 7
NEWS 8
TECHNOLOGY 21