More than 100 tractors and other vehicles were driven through Gore this morning in protest at freshwater regulations.
A rally at the Gore A & P Showgrounds set the scene with the tractor drivers and an audience addressed by protest organisers Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie, and Gore mayor Tracy Hicks.
A call to ignore the new freshwater regulations was greeted with applause.
When members of the audience were given the opportunity to speak, Waikaka farmer Brian Howden encouraged farmers to be united in ignoring the reforms.
Howden said if farmers carried on farming as they had been the Government would be powerless to do anything about it.