While recent compliance flyovers showed most landowners are abiding by the current rules, more work is needed to comply with incoming intensive winter grazing regulations.

The Otago Regional Council (ORC) flyovers took place between May and August, and ORC manager compliance Tami Sargeant said the flights showed increasing awareness of existing and incoming rules since last year.

“Over the flights, we saw relatively few risks from the sky that needed to be followed up on the ground, and we had a lot of great engagement with landowners and industry groups throughout winter,” she said. 

The annual winter flyovers allow staff to check for high risk and potentially non-compliant land use activities with a bird’s eye view. 

The new National Environmental Standards, which have arisen through the government’s Action for Healthy Waterways work, will tighten the restrictions around intensive winter grazing.

Tami said staff were monitoring in preparation for the upcoming regulations, which relate to the amount of paddock being grazed, grazing near critical source areas, and margins when excluding stock from waterways.

“The majority of the sites that we followed up on the ground were fully compliant with current rules, but may have breached incoming rules around critical source areas.” 

“...It’s really important that appropriate grazing plans and management practices are implemented for next season. We encourage people to get in touch if they need clarity or advice about current rules or new rules that will come into force soon.”

More information about current and incoming rules can be found on ORC’s website here, or people can get in touch through the customer services team: [email protected], or 0800 474 082.

PHOTO: ORC