Cubicle farming still on horizon

Environmentalists may have won a battle in the campaign to stop controversial cow-cubicle farming in the Mackenzie Basin, but it could just be a stay of execution.

The backers of a scheme to house nearly 18,000 cows in cubicle stables for much of the year have withdrawn their applications for effluent-discharge consent, saying the $2.63 million price-tag for the Government "call-in" to hear their arguments is "extraordinary".

However, they say they may have another try in a couple of years.

They are still pursuing their applications to take water for irrigation and plan to hang on to their land-use consents, providing they are not overturned by High Court action by the Environmental Defence Society.

The cubicle dairy-farming plan – proposed by Southdown Holdings, Five Rivers and Williamson Holdings – was for 16 new developments managing nearly 18,000 cows, housed in cubicle stables.

Cows would be confined to cubicle stables for 24 hours a day for eight months, from March to October, and let outside for 12 hours a day from November to February.

A panel of resource-consent commissioners considering the companies' applications for water consents is deliberating whether new options, which may still include some cubicle farming, are more acceptable than the original proposal.

Southdown Holdings director Richard Peacocke told The Press yesterday it was too early to say if those options might be pursued.

"We just need to work through the process," he said.

"The more options we have, the easier it is for us."

The options included growing pasture and cutting and transporting it to stock kept off-site, running an irrigated sheep and beef farm with its own pasture, and growing pasture for a mixed farm running a dairy herd and a sheep and beef operation.

Peacocke said cubicle farming was the most sustainable farming for the Mackenzie.

"The irony is the greenest solution is the one that has to be shelved for now," he said.

"The Mackenzie Basin particularly has a very similar climate to those experienced in Europe and by Fonterra in China, where they winter thousands of cows in stables.

"Providing stables for cows is the most effective environmental and robust animal welfare solution for the region and one, eventually, traditional dairy farmers will be forced to consider as they come under ever-increasing pressure in the management of effluent."

The idea might have been ahead of its time, Peacocke said.

"We know there needs to be some work done in terms of convincing the Government and the public that the stable option is greener than what is traditionally being carried out," he said.

"That really needs to be dealt with first, otherwise we are just beating our heads against the wall."

Environmental Defence Society chairman Gary Taylor said there was a misconception the companies had canned the idea.

"We could yet see the proposal resurface," he said. "It's not all over, rover, so we're still pursuing it in court.

"This is a step in the right direction, but is by no means the end of the story.

"Unless overturned by the High Court, the land-use consents are valid for up to five years.

"We note with concern the comment in the applicants' press release that they are still convinced cubicle farming in the Mackenzie country is the way to go, but that they might be two to three years too soon."

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman called for a co-ordinated national policy statement for the Mackenzie.

"This is a real and substantial victory for the green movement, for the thousands of people who submitted against the proposals, and for everyone who cares for our country," he said. "But now we face further challenges.

"The applicants, and many others, are still proceeding with their applications to take water for irrigation in the upper Waitaki so that many tens of thousands of dairy cows can appear on the landscape."

- © Fairfax NZ News