17 Same man, new job Vol 16 No 9, March 6, 2017
farmersweekly.co.nz
Farmers on board Richard Rennie & Neal Wallace
Southland farmer Dean Rabbidge said while he supported the laudable goal of clean, fresh water, he questioned how realistic the cost and timing estimates for excluding livestock. He farms 220ha near Wyndham and calculated the cost of fencing his waterways and installing a stock water scheme at close to $1 million.
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ORTHERN Southland farmer and farm environment group spokesman Aaron Wilson believes the Government’s fresh water standards contain a positive aspirational goal in making 90% of waterways swimmable by 2040. However, the Waimea Valley dairy farmer admits to feeling frustrated that the goal has become mired in an argument about E.coli levels and whether they pose a greater risk under the new standards. But with the standards and goal in place, Wilson said there were bigger issues that require debating at a national level over water quality. “I do not think we are still asking the right questions on land use though,” he said. “It is land use past, present and future that will drive water quality issues from here. If we could (just) draw away from the emotional debate now and look at how the change in land use over time will affect water quality.” But he said there were even bigger issues behind that to debate. “We have to ask ourselves, do we want to continue operating in an open economy where, aside from resource consent land-use change is possible, or do we want something more managed?” He said water quality standards also brought some paradoxes with them for farmers charged with enacting them. “In our catchment, if we had to put wintering barns in it increases costs, so we have to increase our
Water quality is a national effort – it just can’t be put on farmers. Dean Rabbidge Farmer
ATTENUATION: The “mission to Mars” goal of nitrogen reduction in New Zealand’s pastoral systems is the best way to address water quality issues, northern Southland dairy farmer Aaron Wilson says.
production to pay for it, requiring more supplements. “The result is the effluent saved onfarm will always be less than the supplement inputs the system now requires. So intensifying to mitigate can be a paradox.” Instead, Wilson maintains New Zealand’s “mission to Mars” goal should be to find a means to
attenuate nitrogen in a pastoral system. Meantime, fencing requirements under the standards should not cause dairy farmers too much grief. He said it was largely “business as usual” for the dairy sector that was only weeks away from having all waterways fenced from stock.
But as an ex-sheep and beef farmer Wilson said he understood the challenges the drystock sector would face in fencing. “But it is still the most useful tool we have. Despite what some environmentalists may claim, it is also very effective at helping reduce pollution and nutrient levels in waterways.”
Rabbidge said this made the Government’s estimated fencing cost of $367m by 2030 for the whole country as way too low. He would like to exclude stock from waterways tomorrow but realistically it was unaffordable. “Even on a property this size, if you didn’t have debt it would still be very difficult to do.” The Government’s plan appeared to target the rural sector when most urban rivers were in a worse state, but Rabbidge said the solution required a national effort. “I know farmers are aware of it (state of water quality) but the problem doesn’t start and stop with dairy farmers. “Water quality is a national effort – it just can’t be put on farmers,” he said.
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