The management of water in the Bay of Plenty is about to change. As a farmer this is likely to affect your business. This Plan Change will introduce new policies and rules for water allocation that are likely to affect most farming businesses.

This includes:

• All dairy farmers who take more than 15m3 (surface water) or 35m3 (groundwater) per day will have 12 months to obtain resource consents for dairy shed wash down.
• All farmers taking water will be required to demonstrate that the take is efficient.
• It is likely to become more difficult to renew water takes in over allocated catchments.
• Farmers may be required to separately meter water takes and animal drinking takes.
• Farmers may have to reduce or stop water takes during times of low flow.

Federated Farmers is putting together a comprehensive submission on behalf of its members. A lot of this work involves sense checking the proposed rules to make sure farmers, who are the life blood of rural communities, can continue to farm while safeguarding water bodies for everyone in these communities.