For 56 years, the Bloem family have farmed pigs on Otago Peninsula, and for almost all of that time they say they had no complaints from neighbours.
In the following months, council enforcement officers visited the property three times and deemed the smell to be objectionable and offensive.
The first of two infringement notices was issued in September that year and an abatement notice that November.
The complaints arose from pig effluent being applied to paddocks.
In March this year, Mr Bloem, his son Gavin and the Bloem Highcliff Family Trust were fined $6900 in the Dunedin District Court for the offences, which breached the Otago Regional Council's air plan rules.
They were warned any repetition would result in higher penalties.
Pieter Bloem said his was a case of reverse sensitivity, the result of people moving into the rural district and objecting to smells and activities.
"Most new ones know there are going to be smells from time to time, but the odd one moves to the countryside and does not expect farming activities," he said.
But of more concern was the lack of information from the council about the complainant and the nature of their complaint.
Mr Bloem said he wanted to work with the complainant and was prepared to modify his management to accommodate concerns, but the council would not tell him who was complaining or what actions had given rise to their concerns.
Mr Bloem said they later discovered the person's name, met and agreed that if there were concerns in the future, he would be contacted.
He said those "common-sense" steps could have been taken if he had known the name, removing the need for court action.
Because of the secrecy, he said the complainant thought he was not doing anything to modify his actions, despite Mr Bloem making changes as and when he could.
Weather stations have been installed at both farms to help the Bloems decide when and where to apply the effluent, they are using odour mitigating products, they have altered effluent management and bought new irrigating equipment.
They apply between 15,000 and 20,000 litres of pig effluent a day to about 60ha on the two farms and said it was a rich and nutritious fertiliser, which benefited the soil and pasture.
"We take a lot of care to spread it evenly. We don't put it somewhere just to get rid of it."
Slurry from the piggery was collected in a central tank, where solids were separated from liquid. The solids were stored in a bunker where liquid continued to be drained off, and were then made into compost. Liquid was fed through a screen to further separate solids and then pumped out to irrigators.
Mr Bloem said he had no intention of moving either farm.
"I'm not giving away 56 years of work. It is not that easy to pick everything up and move somewhere else," he said.
The land surrounding his Highcliff farm was zoned rural and landowners needed a minimum plot size of 15ha to build a house, but Mr Bloem said if people moved to the area, as his neighbours appreciated, they knew it was a farming district.
Mr Bloem is proud of his family's connection with the Highcliff farm.
His son Gavin, who now works in the business, is the third generation to do so.
"We will continue to operate under the new regime and try to mitigate the effects," he said.