Revised methane targets more achievable - farmers
Farmers are welcoming the Government’s revised science-based biogenic methane targets for 2050.
NZ Forest Owners Association chief executive Dr Elizabeth Heeg says forest owners are being persecuted.
The Government's latest decision to put the brakes on farms being converted to forestry to enter the emission trading scheme (ETS) has won support from many primary sector groups.
The changes include a moratorium on exotic forestry registrations for Land Use Classification (LUC) 1-5 actively farmd land, an annual registration cap of 15,000 hectares for exotic forestry registrations on LUC 6 farmland and allowing up to 25% of a farm's LUC 1-6 land to be planted in forestry for the ETS, ensuring farmers retain flexibility and choice.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay says the new measures address the previous government's failed ETS policies that incentivised large-scale conversions, created ETS complexity, and undermined our world-best primary producers.
"The new policy will help to protect our most productive farmland while allowing room for sustainable forestry growth. Landowners will retain the ability to make smart land use decisions, enhancing both profitability and environmental outcomes," he says.
In welcoming the changes, Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says the meat processing and exporting sector has been concerned for some time about the lack of limits on fossil fuel emitters offsetting their emissions by planting trees on productive land.
"The current carbon pricing and incentives favour forestry over other land uses, creating an economic imbalance," she says.
Beef + Lamb NZ chair Kate Acland says the changes are something her organisation has sought for some time. She says they've consistently been asking for action, alongside concerned farming groups, since 2019.
"We've lost so much productive land to carbon farming - more than 260,000 hectares between 2017 and 30 June 2024 - and that means stock number losses and ultimately negative impacts on rural communities and New Zealand's export earnings," she says.
Federated Farmers spokesman Toby Williams says the move will stop the march of pine trees across farmland and is great news for farmers.
"Rural communities are bearing the brunt of misguided climate change targets. We're seeing schools close, rural bus runs stop, and local clubs fail as jobs are lost from communities across rural New Zealand," he says.
Unhappy about the changes is the Forest Owners Association. Its chief executive Dr Elizabeth Heeg says forest owners are being persecuted and adds that it's a misconception that forest conversions limit food production.
"The announcement essentially devalues farms in that land use will become limited to farming only," she says.
Two rural data organisations - DairyNZ’s DairyBase and Farm Focus - have formed a new partnership that aims to remove data duplication and help provide more timely, useful benchmarking insights for farmers.
BNZ says it is backing aspiring dairy farmers through an innovative new initiative that helps make the first step to farm ownership or sharemilking a little easier.
LIC chief executive David Chin says meeting the revised methane reduction targets will rely on practical science, smart technology, and genuine collaboration across the sector.
Lincoln University Dairy Farm will be tweaking some management practices after an animal welfare complaint laid in mid-August, despite the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation into the complaint finding no cause for action.
A large slice of the $3.2 billion proposed capital return for Fonterra farmer shareholders could end up with the banks.
Opening a new $3 million methane research barn in Waikato this month, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay called on the dairy sector to “go as fast as you can and prove the concepts”.

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