An advisory group tasked with helping Southland farmers implement controversial new freshwater regulations will hold its first meeting next week.

The names of the group members will be announced after the meeting.

A hui held on September 19 to establish the group was attended by farming leaders, industry representatives, Environment Southland staff and Government officials.

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Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell said in a media release today that the hui came from a desire to work with the Southland community to find practical solutions to the new freshwater regulations, particularly focusing on the intensive winter grazing provisions. 

The advisory group had been one of the outcomes of an earlier meeting on September 7, between Minister for the Environment David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, farming leaders and Environment Southland staff and councillors. 

It would include representatives from the rural sector and industry groups. Fish and Game and iwi representatives would be invited to be a part of the group.

The new freshwater regulations were enacted on September 3, causing an outcry from Southland farmers, who said some of the new rules created impractical or unworkable situations around intensive winter grazing, sowing dates, and stock exclusion.

Southland farmers support audited farm environment plan requirements, which are yet to form part of the new legislation aiming to improve water quality around the country.

Many Southland farmers had already begun working on farm plans and changes to intensive winter grazing practices, while Environment Southland had begun extensive consultation on its proposed Water and Land Plan.

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After the regulations were enacted, the agriculture minister Damien O’Connor announced a suite of amendments designed to clarify some of the issues, such as the definition of paddock pugging from cattle hoof prints.

Mr Horrell said he felt the ministers had been listening and were keen to receive advice.

“The group will focus on providing recommendations on fine tuning the regulations on intensive winter grazing, as well as looking at the role farm environment plans could play in the implementation of the regulations,” he said.

Those attending last Friday’s hui acknowledged a need to improve water quality in Southland and the advisory group would focus on achieving this in a practical way, Mr Horrell said.

The advisory group would liaise regularly with the wider hui members, the Otago Regional Council, Environment Canterbury and the wider regional sector to ensure there were connections with national work already underway, he said.