On the 19th of April, 2022 there were government policy updates & changes that will impact intensive winter grazing practice in Canterbury, Otago and Southland. We have worked with resource management consultants at Lumen Environmental to bring this information to you.
It is important to note that if you are not immediately compliant with council regulations or government policy, it is not an automatic exclusion trigger. Rather, you should contact the consents office at your regional council to discuss further.
Critical Updates - 19 April, 2022
Pugging Depth Consent
Pugging depth will no longer be a consenting trigger, rather farmers are required to 'minimise adverse effects on freshwater of any pugging'.
10 Degree Slope remains unchanged
This regulation still applies, but interpretation updated to be 'cropped paddock has a slope of less than 10 degrees along any 20 metre transect of the land'.
No winter crops on Critical Source Area
Any critical source areas* must not be sown in annual forage crops. They must also remain un-grazed between 1 May and 30 September, and must have vegetative ground cover maintained at all times**.
*A Critical Source Area (or CSA) is defined as a landscape feature such as gully, swale or depression that accumulates overland flow from adjacent land and has the potential to deliver the overland flow to a water way.
**Maintenance excludes cultivation or harvesting.
Confirm Replanting Date following intensive winter grazing
No deadline date to resow paddocks ex winter crop, however policy reads 'all winter cropping is to be resown as soon as is practicable after completion of grazing'.
Consent Date Required
Resource consent date delayed in NES-F for Intensive Winter Grazing until 1 November 2022. The exception is Otago where consent date of May 2022 still applies.
All of this latest information and more will be published in our annual Best Practice Winter Grazing Guide, the latest version will be available from Thursday 19 May, 2022.
For further information about these specific critical updates to intensive winter grazing policy, please contact Mark Everest at mark@lumen.co.nz.