North Otago farmers appear to be working with Transpower on upgrading power pylons on their properties, in contrast to South Canterbury where their counterparts are threatening to bar the company entry to their farms.
Upgrading work had already been carried out on a large portion of the Livingstone to Waitaki River Transpower line in North Otago where the utility had been allowed access, and North Otago Federated Farmers president Ross Awing had not heard any complaints from his farmers.
"We met Transpower last year and it outlined its plans.
"We told it to negotiate with individual farmers to resolve any issues and we would act if they could not be," he said yesterday.
Since then, he had not heard from any farmers wanting help.
One affected Island Cliff farmer, Brent Harvey, had reached agreement with Transpower and the line through his land was upgraded.
While he had no issues with Transpower, Mr Harvey also said: "Farmers are also generally scared of them.
"They are a Government organisation with a lot of money.
"You cannot afford to fight them."
The situation is different in South Canterbury where its Federated Farmers has a pylon committee helping farmers who have had a long-running battle with the utility.
Some landowners with pylons on their properties have become frustrated after about four years of negotiations failed to result in what they consider fair compensation for use of their land.
A meeting of the pylon committee on Tuesday issued an ultimatum giving the utility seven days to reach an agreement or gates would be padlocked, the Timaru Herald reported.
Transpower spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson said major upgrade work on the Roxburgh-Islington line, which supplies Christchurch, was finished, but critical maintenance work was still to be done on the foundations of about 20 towers.
Temuka farmer Jeremy Jabot had already closed his gates, allowing Transpower on his land only in an emergency.
"From today, there is to be no more access given to allow that work to be finished until we finally do get the settlement leave been seeking."
Ms Wilson said landowners, who were being dealt with individually, had been offered "easement" payments which were taken up by some.
She said that offer remained on the table and the company was still negotiating.
"There's various factors that we need to still talk to the farmers about and we are continuing to negotiate with them."
Federated Farmers national electricity spokesman Philip York said the organisation did not condone the lockout and was continuing to work with Transpower, but he sympathised with farmers.
Annual rental fees were paid to people with cell phone towers and wind farms on their land and overseas models included payment for power lines.
"As far as we are concerned, we'd like to think Transpower will be offering a modest annual payment just to recognise these guys do it."
