Environmental regulations would only increase for sheep and beef farms, which represented 30% of NZ’s total land area and 71% of pastoral land use.
Nitrogen loss from leaching into ground water was a major issue for dairy farmers but for sheep and beef farms, which were primarily on sloping and elevated landscapes, it was phosphorous, sediment and faecal runoff into waterways.
Holgate warned sheep and beef farmers should expect regional authorities to look at their land management practices and how to reduce contaminant losses.
Rules to regulate those losses would have business implications but how any controls would be imposed was not clear.
Holgate said they could seek to mandate the exclusion of livestock by fencing waterways or seek the exclusion but without prescribing how that was to be achieved.
While sheep and beef farms were low sources of nitrogen leaching, Holgate warned farmers should not ignore regulations.
“As relatively low leachers of nitrogen, sheep and beef farmers will need to be cautious of any framework that caps nitrogen limits at or below their existing leaching levels, preventing them from intensifying their current operation or converting to more intensive land uses.”
Adjusting to any new regulations would require adopting management practices that mitigated the impacts.
Holgate said that could include maintaining riparian buffer strips, targeted fertiliser application and careful cultivation practices to reduce erosion risk.
“It is important that a whole-of-farm approach is taken and that each mitigation strategy is matched to the particular contaminant loss that is being mitigated and to the physical resources and current farm system of the existing farm.”
