Deer farmers fear $100m cost spike

Deer farming and hunting lobbyists say they have lost faith in the Department of Conservation (DoC) after getting mixed messages about proposed regulations.

DoC's review of deer farming could cost the industry $100 million in unnecessary fencing upgrades, says Andy Mitchell, spokesman for the NZ Deer Farmers Association, NZ Game Estates Association and the Game and Forest Foundation.

However, he says DoC has told him new fencing standards, including a minimum height of 2m, will not apply to existing farms.

"The department has come out ... and they are saying, 'No, don't be silly, all the current farms are fine."

He says if the exemption is not written into regulations it could be ignored at a later date.

"What concerns the industry is that they are now trying to take some heat out of our argument in an attempt to get these fencing standards gazetted and then have the regulatory authority do what they like."

On the other hand, he added, if existing farms were exempt, that would make a mockery of introducing a new standard in the first place.

Mitchell said a height of 2m was used in Northland and Taranaki - where there is no wild deer population - and a 1.7m height was used in for the rest of the country.

He said this dual industry standard dated back to a 1991 agreement with DoC that was never officially enacted. "We have lost faith in the department," he said.

"They have completely ignored the largest stakeholder's views on this. We have not been able to discuss this with them in good faith."

DoC national spokesman Don McKenzie said the department had never expected farmers to "pull down their fences".

"Once decisions are made on this proposal ... we expect change to be gradual, as maintenance is done or new farms built."

McKenzie said the proposed new regulation post height of 2m would update the previous legal requirement of 6.5 feet (1.98m), which dated back to 1969.

He said the deadline for submissions was September 23.

Facts and figures

* Deer farming is under review.
* NZ has 5078 deer farms.
* Production is worth $243m a year.
* DoC says fence upgrades will be gradual.
* The industry says the upgrades could cost $100 million.