Editorial: Winter grazing farce

But there's a problem: farmers now have to fork out thousands of dollars to obtain resource consents from regional councils.

This is because the Government has failed to deliver freshwater farm plan templates that farmers could use to show that grazing won't worsen water conditions on their properties.

Farmers are rightly upset. The Government's promised three pathways for winter grazing for the last few years and its sheer incompetence that they're not ready yet.

The first pathway allows for grazing if it complies with national environmnetal standards for freshwater.

The second pathway, which is currently unavailable, requires a "freshwater farm plan" to be submitted to show grazing won't worsen water conditions.

The third will see farmers pay for resource consent through their regional council. In some cases, it could cost at least $1,000.

For example, the cost of a resource consent in Southland would be $1,725 just for the deposit.

Some disgruntled farmers at a recent Federated Farmers meeting said they would refuse to obtain a consent until the legislation is fully ready.

For its part, Federated Farmers has made it clear that farmers should carry out winter grazing in a responsible manner and in no way encourages farmers to break the law.

But when pathways are limited and full of roadblocks, people simply become frustrated.

Farmers' pleas for the regulations to be delayed until the farm plan pathway was available to farmers, to avoid the enormous consent burden on councils and farmers, fell on deaf ears.

At a recent Invercargill public meeting organised by Southland Federated Farmers, some elected representatives took a personal stance that they would not be applying for winter grazing consents as they consider them to be a waste of time and money.

Farmers say this is a clear indication of utter desperation, and only necessar because the Government has failed to deliver the promised alternative farm plan pathway.

The Government estimates 10,000 farmers will need to get a resource consent to undertake winter grazing. At an average cost of $2,000 each, the resource consents would leave farmers $20 million poorer.

In addition to the financial burden, the process of obtaining a resource consent is time consuming and stressful.

The need for the resource consent is largely down to Government, not farmer failures.