Roadside grazing request issued

Farmers in the Manawatu District who graze livestock on the roadside are being urged by council to appropriately fence the animals to ensure drains are protected.

Roading Projects Engineer, Brent Holmes, said roadside drains could become pugged and road culverts blocked as a result of incorrectly fenced livestock.

“We want farmers to be aware that if culverts under a road are blocked, major damage can be caused as water banks up and floods paddocks and overflows onto the road,” he said. “It only takes one cow to push down some earth for problems to occur.”

Mr Holmes said many farmers carry out roadside grazing in winter – a move that posed no problems if it was correctly handled.

“The farmer gets free feed and their paddocks don’t suffer pugging damage, while the council gains in that stock keeps the grass down on the road reserve.”

He said there were 6000 culverts in the district and it takes up to six months for each one of those to be visited and checked.

“We do try and keep the culverts clear, but it’s a big network and if you are getting three or four significant rain events per year, it can take contractors some time to come back around and check them again.”

Mr Holmes said council could spend a fortune putting new culverts under roads, but if there was a blockage further up the line, they became next to useless.

He said roadside numbered marker pegs indicate the location of a culvert and if damaged or lost, some work was required for them to be properly repositioned.

“It’s in everyone’s best interests that if stock is put in those areas they don’t cause any blockage.”

Mr Holmes said all the necessary requirements for anyone grazing stock on the roadside were contained in a special pamphlet that was freely available from the council office.