Intensive Winter Grazing

Whether you're doing intensive winter grazing as a Permitted Activity or applying for resource consent, one thing won't change – you'll need a written plan that clearly identifies the environmental risks associated with the activity, and how you plan to manage and mitigate each of these risks.

Your intensive winter grazing plan will be the key reference you follow over the winter months.

Government and industry organisations have developed several IWG management templates and guidance documents you can use to make your plan:

• Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)
• Beef + Lamb NZ
• DairyNZ

A Permitted Activity rule outlines certain conditions that need to be met to operate without consent. If your activity meets all of those conditions, you don’t need council authorisation, and are not required to notify us of the activity.

Use these questions to determine if you can operate under the Permitted Activity rules:

• Was the land on farm used for winter grazing between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2019?
  
  
• Is the total area used for IWG no more than the maximum area used between the above dates?
  
  
• Does the total area of intensive winter grazing on your farm meet the following limits:
  a) For a farm 500ha or less, the maximum area of IWG is 50ha?
  b) For a farm larger than 500ha, is the maximum area of IWG 10% of the property size?

• Is the slope of land under winter crop 10 degrees or less measured over any 20 m distance?
  
  
• Are all critical source areas within or nearby the winter grazing area protected, ungrazed, uncultivated and unharvested over the winter grazing months?
  
  
• Are livestock kept at least five metres away from the bed of any river, lake, wetland or drain, regardless of if there is water present at the time?
  
  
• Will you take all reasonably practicable steps to minimise adverse effects from pugging and ensure vegetation is established as ground cover over the whole area of that land as soon as practicable after grazing?

If you answered No to ANY of these questions, a resource consent will be required for intensive winter grazing on your farm.

If you answered YES to ALL of these questions, then you can practice intensive winter grazing as a Permitted Activity.

If you plan to conduct intensive winter grazing in 2023 and can’t meet the Permitted Activity rules, you will need to lodge a resource consent application by 1 May 2023. You are not required to have been granted resource consent, only to have lodged an application by this date.

While you won't be granted resource consent immediately, you can still continue with planning and planting for next season and grazing in 2023, as long as you're following your management plan and are consistent with what you’ve applied for.

How to apply

See our page about how to apply for a resource consent.

For costs, see our page: Consent Costs

An intensive winter grazing management plan is a key feature of the application and a requirement of the consent going forward.

You can apply for any consent duration, but what is granted will depend on your individual situation. Generally, it will be 5 years.

With any new regulation, our first priority is education. For the next year, we will be focusing on supporting farmers to understand the new rules and how they can meet them. There are lots of resources online and staff on the ground to help.

As intensive winter grazing can be a high risk to the environment, we expect that effects are managed even while you are working towards getting your consent. Existing rules in Hawkes Bay restrict stock access to waterways and discharge to water, so we will continue to follow up any incidents relating to these. Each case will be assessed on its merits and compliance action may be taken where necessary.

The compliance team will be interested to see that you have considered good management practices in developing your plan and then that you have reliably implemented your plan. This applies to both the farms that can meet the permitted activity and those that now require a resource consent.

The compliance team undertake a flight during winter to monitor from the air as a scan to see any potential issues, if any are spotted these are followed up on ground with the landowners.

Where Council receives information from the public this is investigated to determine whether a rule breach occurs.

Consents are monitored in line with Council’s priority system, which may mean a proportion of consents are monitored in any one season. The compliance team undertake farm visits preferably with the farmer.

The actual and reasonable costs associated with consent monitoring are recovered from consent holders as provided for in the annual plan.

Here are some ways to protect soil structure and reduce the leaching of nitrogen and phosphorous into waterways on your farm:

• What's your plan for bad weather? Having practical bad weather mitigations must be part of planning your winter feed management. For example, what will you do to stop soil damage and increased run-off entering waterways during storm events?
• Paddock selection for winter is crucial – it's best to choose paddocks away from waterways and wet areas prone to pugging to reduce the risk of sediment and nutrient run-off.
• When planting the crop, leave grass buffer strips around critical source areas, such as gullies and swales, where the run-off collects and flows out of the paddock.
• Have a good look at the landscape and ensure there are larger buffers around the waterways. This can really help reduce sediment and nutrient loss into waterways.
• Graze strategically by protecting any critical source areas. Leave them in the pasture or graze last, when it is dry, if they need to be grazed at all.
• It's also a good idea to back-fence stock off the land that has already been grazed, to even further reduce run-off. Strategic grazing and careful management of critical source areas can reduce losses of sediment and phosphorous (P) by 80-90%.
• In wet conditions, practice on/off grazing to minimise pugging damage to the soil and distribute nutrients from dung and urine more widely.
• Plant a cool tolerant follow-up crop, such as oats or rye, as soon as possible after grazing. This can soak up nutrients from the soil, rather than them being leached if the paddock is left fallow.

We know these changes can be confusing, and we’re here to help. If you have any questions regarding intensive winter grazing rules and practices, email us at consentsadvisor@hbrc.govt.nz with your specific queries, and we’ll get back to you with advice.

Your industry partners (DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Deer NZ and others) will have guidance and templates that can help you with your intensive winter grazing and other farm management.