A series of 10 workshops being held by the Otago Regional Council in coming weeks is designed to help farmers meet their intensive winter grazing (IWG) obligations, including getting resource consent.
The workshops are being held at seven locations during the next four weeks: at Moeraki, Ranfurly, Middlemarch, Hawea/Luggate, Catlins, Papakaio and Five Forks.
The council’s acting consents manager Alexandra King said if farmers are unsure how to put an IWG resource consent together, they should consider attending one of the workshops where they should be able to complete their consents on the spot.
“The focus of the workshop sessions is on how we can help people, and these workshops are hands on.”
In some cases IWG systems could be a permitted activity.
Farmers in Otago and Southland have been slow to seek consent for IWG for the coming winter, with just 122 applications lodge as of early last month, 72 in Otago and 50 in Southland.
An IWG consent can be for up to the next three to five years, but they must be in place before it comes into effect.
King says applications for winter 2023, and beyond, should be in by mid-April to ensure consents are in place by May.
