Rick's Beef: Farmer revolt in the Waikato

F4PC are not against the vision of Healthy Rivers Waipa-Waikato which they embrace, but the grandparenting mechanism to achieve it in PC1.

Earlier this year I talked about fresh water policy being driven by central government coming to our region like a freight train.

We just need to look over the hill into the Waikato where the Healthy Rivers Wai Ora, proposed plan change (PC1) for the Waipa and Waikato rivers, has been recently notified by the Waikato Regional Council (WRC).

Battle lines are drawn between mainly drystock farmers and the WRC over the mechanism to regulate the plan.

The WRC's proposal is to take a 'grandparenting' approach to managing nitrogen leaching by giving each property a Nitrogen Discharge Allowance (referred to as an NDA), using Overseer Nutrient Budgets to assess the nitrogen that each property was deemed to be leaching in 2014-2015 or 2015-2016 years of production.

In my view, this system will in fact reward the polluters and significantly disadvantage those who are already leaching less nitrogen (and therefore farming more sustainably), by locking them into a situation which gives no flexibility for future farming systems or land use.

I am chairman of a group that has been formed in the Waikato made up of mainly drystock farmers but also dairy farmers called Farmers For Positive Change (F4PC), supported by Beef + Lamb.

It aims to challenge the current grandparenting approach to managing nitrogen and believes it is fundamentally flawed.

F4PC believe it is an expedient, crude mechanism to manage nitrogen allocation; it fails to adopt a polluter pays principle, it is unfair, unsustainable and morally wrong.

F4PC are not against the vision of Healthy Rivers Waipa-Waikato which they embrace, but the grandparenting mechanism to achieve it in PC1.

All farmers must take responsibility for managing contaminants leaving their farms ie. nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and E.coli.

F4PC is proposing that sectors and communities focus on a sub-catchment approach where Dairy NZ and Beef + Lamb work together with communities through industry-approved Land and Environmental Plans (LEPs) for farmers to understand the land use capability in both their sub-catchments and on their own farms and manage and improve water quality, as a team approach.

This would involve communities and farmers working together, getting to understand how to improve water quality in their catchments by introducing science and technology which might involve building wetlands, or farmers with adjoining land agreeing to co-operatively plant some of it in manuka for honey production.

There are plenty of examples in New Zealand, and around the world where this sort of co-operation can be hugely successful.

A big lesson can be learned for our BOP Regional Council from what's happening in the Waikato, and that is the basic principles of collaboration must be managed carefully and adhered to in regards to sector representation being fair and equitable, that information/science is complete for parties to make informed decisions, that regulation needs to be signed off by all parties and most importantly, the councils need to create the right culture at the start.

That's fundamental to any teamwork in business or on the sports field and this is where the WRC has failed, hence the massive negative reaction to PC1.

F4PC has 1000 farmers on their database and is aiming to build the numbers going into next year.

Unless the WRC revisit their plan you will possibly see a serious farmer revolt in the Waikato, particularly as drystock farmer businesses, families and communities feel seriously threatened by the WRC PC1. Waikato farmers see this issue as of national importance.

BOP farmers and BOPRC watch this space. Let's not have the same conflict in our patch.

I hope you have a safe and relaxing Christmas and I'll catch up with you all in the New Year.