Dairy farms proposed for the
Omarama and Ohau areas were "a world-class proposal" which
was a victim of misinformation, the three companies behind
the development said yesterday.
• Court challenge of dairy-farm consents
still on
Southdown Holdings Ltd, Williamson Holdings Ltd and Five
Rivers Ltd have now withdrawn dairy effluent discharge
resource consent applications needed to establish the 16
dairy farms covering 8555ha on three properties housing up to
17,850 cows in cubicles all day between March and October and
12 hours a day between November and February.
They faced a bill of about $3 million after Minister for the
Environment Nick Smith used the Resource Management Act (RMA)
to call in the 15 applications and appoint a board of inquiry
to hear them.
That "extraordinary cost", without knowing whether they had
water for irrigation and to dilute effluent on the farms, was
too great a gamble. However, if the companies receive
resource consents for the water from an Environment
Canterbury (ECan) panel at present considering them, they
could reapply for the effluent consents.
Until now, representatives had kept silent in the face of
political and public criticism, including claims the dairy
farms were "factory farming".
"Our silence to the criticism and misinformation in the press
to this point was driven by the view it was inappropriate to
have the matter litigated through the media and in respect
for the legal ECan-driven RMA process," Southdown Holdings'
director Richard Peacocke said yesterday.
He said the companies had spent about $2 million removing
wilding pines from the properties and $1.8 million on the
ECan resource consents process. He described the plans as
"environmentally sustainable regional development" which
recognised the fragility of the Omarama and Ohau areas.
"We set about developing a world-class proposal to minimise
and mitigate any potential negative environmental effects of
dairy farming, even though the use of stables [cubicles] is a
higher capital cost to us."
However, there were long-term benefits through improved
control and mitigation of effluent impacts on waterways,
improved animal welfare and enhanced production.
"The irony of our situation is that stable-style farming is
the way of the future if New Zealand is committed to
environmentally sustainable farming," he said.
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