A dairy farmer says the Manawatu-Whanganui Regional Council hasn’t  done enough to water down its new plan to regulate farming.

The council's One Plan, covering the management of natural resources for the next 10 years, has sparked  a lot of heat from farmer groups who say it will now mean a consent to farm, forcing some farmers out of business.
On Wednesday, the council said it would ask farmers to get resource consent if they CANNOT meet nitrate discharge conditions. Farmers will need to keep nitrate loss to under 20 – 30 kilos per hectare.

The council’s Planning and regulatory manager Greg Carlyon says a hearing panel will consider the proposed changes next week, before making its full decision at the end of June.

But  Dairy Farmers of New Zealand executive member, Andrew Hoggard of Fielding, says he's not sure if the discharge conditions can be met. He says the dairy industry already has effective environmental practices in place, like the dairying and clean streams accord.