Canterbury farm drops bid for feedlots for 2200 cattle

Wednesday, 7 June 2023

Wongan Hills Ltd proposed a 2000-plus cattle feedlot at Kaituna Valley, Banks Peninsula.

Controversial plans to intensively farm at least 2200 cattle inside barns on Banks Peninsula have been dropped.

Wongan Hills Ltd has been seeking resource consent from Environment Canterbury (ECan) to run a composting feedlot operation, producing beef for the high-end Waygu export market.

The farm is in the Kaituna Valley upstream of Lake Ellesmere /Te Waihora, just north of Birdlings Flat.

The application attracted 128 public submissions, of which most were opposed on grounds including flooding risk, the impact on the lake and animal welfare.

Protesters express their opposition to the feedlot application in 2022.

A hearing before independent commissioners had been set down for next month. The applications had been to operate the feedlots and discharge odours for a period of 35 years.

Donald Matheson, a spokesperson for the Little River Eco-Collective which campaigned against the proposal, said the withdrawal was “a victory for the environment and the community”, and they were thrilled.

The protest group was formed after Christchurch City Council gave Wongan Hills consent in 2021 to build cattle sheds on the property.

The group petitioned ECan last year asking for the resource consent application to be publicly notified.

Matheson said that while cattle barns had been established elsewhere in New Zealand and could successfully stop leeching of some emissions if correctly run, environmental issues for each site needed to be considered.

“The proposed sheds were to use a composting system that carried risks of pollution if not managed precisely,” he said.

“This sends a signal that industrial farming has to do its homework and must take account of fragile environments and the wishes of communities.”

A spokesperson for Wongan Hills Ltd said the environmental impact of the Kaituna proposal was “narrow and would have confidently favoured the granting of consent”.

“With consents already being held for a site elsewhere, ongoing time delays mean that the alternative site will now be developed first, with the Kaituna site potentially revisited in the future.

“It is Wongan Hills view that these types of barns will play an important role in the future in managing environmental and emission issues currently being grappled with by the industry.”