| 53 “The high country should have been excluded where there are low-density stocking rates.” RURAL PEOPLE» Rob Stokes Hugh de Lacy Federated Farmers South Island High Country chairman Rob Stokes is concerned about the practicality of all rivers being fenced by 2025. All rivers fenced by 2025 not practicable Darfield 03 318 8516 | Oxford 03 312 4016 www.frewstransport.co.nz • GENERAL FREIGHT • STOCK • LIME & FERTILISER • GRAIN • LOG CARTAGE • BLOWER TRUCK AG WORK SPRAYING FIRE FIGHTING HELI-LOGGING HEAVY LIFTING SPECIALIST CREW UH-1 (HUEY) HUGHES 500 Darren Davison Chief Pilot Owner 027 243 6141 The Government’s clean water policy requirement that all rivers be fenced by 2025 is simply not practicable in the case of South Island high country and southern West Coast farms, according to Federated Farmers South Island High Country chairman Rob Stokes. Rob, who farms 2500ha in Less Valley west of Rangiora in North Canterbury, says that even after some initial tweaking the policy for the high country and the West Coast is still not feasible. A large stream, Duck Creek, flows through Rob’s property near the headwaters of the Rakahuri (Ashley) River where he farms 3000 sheep and grazes cattle year-round “South Island landscapes are pretty well unfencible, and farms in South Westland in particular where there are very low stocking rates that are not actually detrimental to conservation. “These farms are very low capacity with only 400 to 500 cattle in catchments of tens of thousands of hectares. “We got flooded quite badly in the last 12 months, and you can’t control these rivers. “It’s undoable.” Rob says the Government has attempted to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to types of farmland where the catchments are so big they’re impossible to fence anyway, while stocking rates are so low as to make little impression on water quality. “The high country should have been excluded where there are low-density stocking rates, and that would have been a more practical way to avoid catching them in the policy. “They were never going to damage the conservation side of it and degrade the water.” The two southern areas should never have been covered by the policy, but successive rounds of talks have yet to get them excluded, or to have the policy restricted from areas where it can’t be implemented. The Minister of Agriculture, Damian O’Connor, has acknowledged the Government’s desire for a single policy covering all farmland, but “it’s got to be worked in another way to make fencing of waterways feasible,” Rob says. “It would cost millions of dollars to fence those areas, which would then fill up with weeds and pests. “Who’s going to pay for that – and farmers are still getting rated on that land?” The Government has produced a second lot of maps re-jigged on degree-of-slope recommendations “but they’re still pulling in those areas, especially on the West Coast. “To be fair, when they did the second lot of maps it dropped a few high country farms out, but on the Coast they didn’t get anything out of it.” Talks are continuing with the involvement of Beef and Lamb and Federated Farmers, but both Damian O’Connor – who himself farms in the Buller Valley on the West Coast – and Minister for the Environment David Parker “want a result quickly, but this one’s not a quick fix,”: Rob says. “There’s still some potential for modification, and we hope the talks keep going on. “As long as we’re talking I think we’ll get it right, but at this stage the high country hill areas are the major concern.” Grassmere Gallant 244
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=