Intensive winter grazing: implementation guidance
Guidance for councils, farmers and farm advisors on intensive winter grazing.
On this page
Guidance on winter grazing was released to help farmers mitigate winter grazing’s possible negative impacts on animals and the environment.
The Ministry for Primary Industries’ website has information on when land users need to apply for a resource consent.
- Intensive winter grazing module [Ministry for Primary Industries website]
Regulations to better control intensive winter grazing’s impact were introduced in the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater 2020 (NES-F) as part of the Essential Freshwater reforms.
The regulations came into effect on 1 November 2022.
See the regulations [NZ Legislation website]
From October 2024, the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act repealed the:
- permitted activity and restricted discretionary activity regulations and associated requirements in the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F) and
- stand-alone regulations relating to pugging and ground cover.
The Act introduced new regulations requiring:
- an area of land that is used for intensive winter grazing on a farm to be located at least 5 meters away from any river, lake, wetland, or drain (regardless of whether there is any water in them at the time), and
- the protection of critical source areas in relation to land that is used for intensive winter grazing.
See Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act
Councils may adopt additional intensive winter grazing requirements in their regional plans and any existing rules continue to apply. Check whether there are relevant rules in your region.
Read about IWG changes in the Act.
Read the Regulatory impact statement on Amending the stock exclusion regulations.
The following policies and regulations have provisions which apply to intensive winter grazing.
Intensive winter grazing module
- Intensive winter grazing module [Ministry for Primary Industries website]
In November 2022, the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry for Primary Industries released the updated Intensive Winter Grazing Module to reflect amendments to the NES-F regulations and incorporate feedback received on the previous version.
The module is designed to assist farmers with IWG planning and includes a step-by-step template to fill out during this process.
Guidance on critical source area, pugging and ground cover
Published in March 2023, the guidance is a series of documents to support people who manage and monitor intensive winter grazing activities.
It includes the following information:
- an introduction to the intensive winter grazing guidance series
- pugging
- groundcovers
- critical source areas
Animal management: winter grazing and mud
- Guidance on animal management [Ministry for Primary Industries]
Upcoming freshwater guidance
Applying regulations in your region
Contact your regional council to find out how these regulations apply in your region
Animal welfare
Contact the Ministry for Primary Industries if you have an animal welfare enquiry or would like to report an animal welfare concern
Regulation information
Contact the Ministry team for any questions about the regulations.