Otago Regional Council to launch winter flyovers
Otago Regional Council is set to begin its annual winter farm flyovers in the next three weeks.
Acting manager consents Alexandra King says the focus in recent months has been on educating farmers on how they can meet the permitted activity rules or how to apply for IWG consents – which can cover as many as five years.
She says that to-date 250 applications have been lodged, with 207 consents issued.
“We’re hoping to see a high level of good practice this winter, building on the work from previous years,” says King.
While the deadline for applications was 1 May, ORC is running three more “one-on-one” IWG workshops later this month, in Dunedin, Balclutha and Oamaru where Consent Planners will walk farmers through their applications, to completion.
King says there has been “great engagement” from the rural community and stakeholders with people thinking about their activity and how they reduce any risks, and all those farmers now with consents also have grazing management plans in place for winter 2023.
“People have been thinking about how they will manage their winter grazing and reduce any on-farm risks,” she says.
Meanwhile, ORC’s principal compliance specialist, Mike Cummings, says the first round of flyovers, performed pre-1 May, were over areas historically used for IWG practices and looked at slope, compared with where there was an absence of consents.
He says the flyovers focused on education and the data is still being processed. Planning is now underway for an additional round of flyovers.
Cummings says the flyover focus will shift to supporting Compliance with the regulations and consents, including through further flyovers planned for the winter.
“It’s great that people have applied for consents or adapted their practices to meet the permitted activity. But the focus now is on how people manage their activity over winter to continue to meet the permitted activity requirements and the conditions of their consents,” he says.
Flyovers will be looking at any instream disturbances, forestry and IWG areas.
The goal of the flyovers is to provide targeted information about rules and timeframes and to link farmers with further support around this farming practice.
