Cow cubicle plans face the heat

Politicians, farmers and actors are about to air their views in a six-week-long hearing on controversial cubicle dairying proposals.

Southdown Holdings, Five Rivers, and Williamson Holdings want to set up 16 stand-alone cubicle dairy farms with up to 17,850 cows in the Upper Waitaki.

The hearings start today and will finish on April 16. Representatives from the Department of Conservation, Meridian Energy, the Mackenzie Guardians – a group which includes actor Sam Neill and poet Brian Turner – will be among those speaking to their submissions.

Several groups oppose the proposals. Environment Canterbury has received more than 5000 submissions against the water consents. Public pressure also forced Environment Minister Nick Smith to appoint a board of inquiry to oversee the effluent consents, which collectively totalled 414 million litres of storage capacity and plans to put up to 1.7 million litres a day of diluted effluent on to the land.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman, who has blasted the proposals as unsustainable "factory farming", said he would speak at the board of inquiry hearings.

Mr Neill was not sure whether he would speak at the water consent hearings, but in his submission lamented the "potential degradation of the region".

"It is self evident that this rugged, tough tussock country is unsuitable for dairying," he said.

"I am opposed to the increasing farming intensification there, and the absurd notion, for instance, of shedding cattle for eight months of the year, along with the consequent large-scale infrastructure sitting in the landscape, as is proposed for several properties in the Lake Ohau area.

"These proposals may enrich a few, but they will certainly impoverish the rest of us, not just now, but for generations to come. Sometimes the best thing for the land is to just leave it alone."

Earlier this month, the three companies told the commissioner they had considered alternative farming methods, including sheep and beef finishing, or mixed-enterprise farming. However, the original proposals were still their preferred option.

A Ministry for the Environment spokesman said the board of inquiry team has not agreed to a hearing date as of yet. The Waitaki District Council granted consents for land use and intensive farming.

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