Waikato Plan Change 1 litigation nears conclusion after 12 years
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).
The 2016 annual Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek has been cancelled.
The Waikato Regional Council will instead run catchment-specific field days to promote good effluent management practices.
The council says it will take a fresh approach to helping farmers with effluent management next year, with more catchment field days for providing advice to smaller groups of farmers closer to home.
In recent years, the council has run the annual Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek, an event which has regularly attracted hundreds of farmers and dozens of exhibitors.
The council has decided not to hold an expo at Mystery Creek in 2016 given the dairy payout situation, and it believes its new approach will make things simpler for farmers.
“We feel we can better support farmers in the current economic climate by running effluent management field days in each catchment to help drive overall improvements in effluent systems,” says sustainable agriculture advisor Electra Kalaugher.
Meanwhile, the council also intends having a stand at the Grasslandz agriculture hub in Hamilton in January. “So we won’t be slowing up on offering effluent management advice to farmers even though we’re not going ahead with the Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek,” she says.
Labour's agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton says while New Zealand needs more housing, sacrificing our best farmland to get there is not the answer.
Profitability issues facing arable farmers are the same across the world, says New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy Hamish Marr.
Over 85% of Fonterra farmer suppliers will be eligible for customer funding up to $1,500 for solutions designed to drive on-farm efficiency gains and reduce emissions intensity.
Tighter beef and lamb production globally have worked to the advantage of NZ, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
Groundswell is ramping up its 'Quit Paris' campaign with signs going up all over the country.
Some farmers in the Nelson region are facing up to five years of hard work to repair their damaged properties caused by the recent devastating floods.