The stock exclusion regulations prohibit the access of cattle, pigs and deer to wetlands, lakes and rivers. These regulations were developed as part of the Essential Freshwater reforms.
Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020
MfE
3 September 2020
The Government consulted on proposals to prepare or amend national direction, including amending the Stock Exclusion Regulations.
Consultation closed on 27 July 2025.
View the Infrastructure, development and primary sector national direction consultation
Amendments were notified in the New Zealand Gazette on 9 April 2026 and will come into force on 7 May 2026.
See RMA National Direction updates
See the gazette notice for stock exclusion regulations.
The Recommendations and Decisions report on the Stock Exclusion amendments will be released at a later date.
Livestock entering water bodies can cause contamination and damage the banks and other parts of aquatic habitats. This affects New Zealanders’ ability to use waterbodies for recreation and mahinga kai (food gathering).
Heavy livestock (cattle and deer) and pigs have the greatest impact.
Livestock can carry disease-causing organisms like campylobacter, which can make people sick when they come into contact with water contaminated with livestock dung.
Dung and urine also contain nutrients that promote weed growth and reduce the water body’s ability to support a healthy ecosystem.
When stock trample banks and beds of water bodies they increase streambank erosion and sediment runoff, adversely affecting habitats like those used for fish spawning.
These regulations, in force from 3 September 2020, apply to a person who owns or controls beef cattle, dairy cattle, dairy support cattle, deer or pigs (stock). The regulations require the person to exclude stock from specified wetlands, lakes and rivers more than one metre wide.
Dairy cattle, dairy support cattle and pigs must be excluded from the water bodies.
Beef cattle and deer must be excluded from the water bodies if they are break-feeding or grazing annual forage crops or irrigated pasture.
Stock must not be on land closer than three metres to the bed of rivers and lakes.
In April 2026, Regulation 17 of the Stock Exclusion Regulations was amended as part of phase 2 of the Resource Management reforms.
Regulation 17 previously required all stock to be excluded from natural wetlands supporting a population of threatened species, regardless of the size of the wetland, or the intensity of the farming system. As of 7 May 2026, Regulation 17 only applies to dairy cattle, dairy support cattle, pigs and intensively grazed beef cattle and deer.
See Updating National Direction: Changes to Stock Exclusion regulations
See the Stock Exclusions (Amendments to Regulation 17) Regulatory Impact Statement
In October 2024, the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill repealed the low slope map and associated requirements from the Stock Exclusion Regulations.
Read the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
This means that beef cattle and deer that are not intensively grazing (i.e., that are not break-feeding or grazing annual forage crops or irrigated pasture) are no longer required to be excluded from lakes and rivers more than one metre wide under the Stock Exclusion Regulations. However, regional plan rules may still apply.
In relation to wetlands, the regulations still require all stock (including beef cattle and deer that are not intensively grazing) to be excluded from some specified wetlands.
These changes come into effect on 25 October 2024.
The natural wetland provisions in the Stock Exclusion Regulations (i.e., regulations 16 and 17) don’t apply to the geographic area identified as the Upper Taieri Scroll Plain.
The Upper Taieri Scroll Plain is a meander system in which the Taieri River meanders across vast flood plains and, due to variable water flows, has created diverse wetland habitats and oxbow lakes. It is comprised of the Styx, the Māniototo Basins and the old Taieri Lakebed, which contain diverse wildlife and habitats that reflect the age, isolation, sediment regime and frequency of water flows and impoundments.
The size and complexity of these wetlands mean they are unique and particularly challenging to exclude stock from.
The above exception has been provided on the basis Otago Regional Council implements suitable provisions in its regional plan for managing grazing within the wetlands, as soon as reasonably practical and no later than 1 July 2025.
Other requirements to exclude stock and manage wetlands will continue to apply in respect of the wetlands. This includes existing direction in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and National Environmental Standards for Freshwater 2020 (see wetlands implementation guidance).