Southland farmers could end up drowning in paperwork if proposed government restrictions on winter grazing go through, says Andrew Hoggard.
"It's effectively going to mean every Southland farmer is going to need a restricted discretionary consent ... it's quite an onerous thing they've put in place here, all the pathways of making all this paperwork etc haven't been designed yet," the Federated Farmers president told The Country's Jamie Mackay.
"Farmers need certainty and clarity around - if they're going to plant something in the next two months - if they're actually going to be allowed to grow it."
Winter Grazing is when farmers use fodder crops, such as beet, swedes or kale to keep their cows fed over the colder months, when grass is scarce. The practice tends to be used more in Otago and Southland as the grass effectively stops growing due to the colder climate.
Sometimes winter grazing caused environmental damage such as "pugging", when wet soil and pasture was churned up and pushed down by heavy livestock. There was also a risk of soil loss, as grazing—related damage reduced its ability to absorb water.
Under the new proposals, pugging was restricted to hoof prints in the ground no deeper than 20cms and no more than 50 per cent of a paddock.
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Mackay pointed out that anyone who had fed stock on brassica in Otago or Southland over winter would know that wasn't possible to meet those guidelines.
"Exactly, and you're going to be forced to do a restricted discretionary consent which the councils don't have in place right now to put it in action," said Hoggard.
Hoggard said many Southland farmers already took these factors into consideration and were doing "a fantastic job" with their winter grazing. He was concerned the government proposals would force farmers into a "draconian, costly exercise".
"[The proposals] possibly won't have much in the way of environmental gains – just a hell of a lot of paperwork".
Meanwhile DairyNZ released a statement saying it shared Federated Farmers' concerns over new winter grazing regulations, but did not condone any calls to boycott the rules.
"Some of the regulations appear to be impractical and unworkable on farm. The timeframes are tight, and clarity is needed on things like how pugging in a paddock would be measured or monitored and defining slope levels of a paddock for regional councils," DairyNZ head of South Island Tony Finch said.
While dairy farmers shared the Government's aspiration for healthy waterways, solutions needed to be fair and underpinned by robust science, said Finch.
"As a sector we need to be using the right channels to work through the issues as we try to find pragmatic solutions that work for everyone. DairyNZ is instead calling an urgent meeting with all parties to explore a pathway forward."
Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard. Photo / Supplied
Whatever the outcome, Hoggard said the Government would be wise to listen to the farming sector.
"The Government needs to understand that none of us went into farming to fill in endless bits of paperwork."
"We've got to do this stuff a hell of a lot smarter or we're just going to wear farmers down."
• Environment Minister David Parker had been contacted by Jamie Mackay for comment on this issue and The Country hoped to have him on the show next week.
