Managing silage and compost

Managing your own silage and compost can be cost-effective, but needs to be carefully managed.

You must not feed out silage on the beds or banks of streams, rivers, lakes, or wetlands. You should check the location of your silage or compost pit to make sure it complies with the rules on distances from waterways, neighbours, roads, and public areas.

The Otago Water Plan prohibits the discharge of silage and compost leachate to:

• any waterway, including the bed, or to a drain or water race that goes to them or to coastal water
• saturated land
• land, if it results in ponding
• land, if it results in an overland flow to a waterway, or coastal water, or to a drain (open or mole and tile drain system) or water race that goes to them
• any bore or soak hole
• land within 50 metres of any waterway, bore, or soak hole.

It is prohibited to do any of the above and resource consent cannot be granted to do so.

The Otago Waste Plan also has set of rules that apply to silage. You will require resource consent if:

• there will be groundwater seepage into the pit; or
• you want to locate the silage stack or pit within 100m of a well used for domestic purposes or drinking water for livestock; or
• leachate from the silage stack or pit will enter a water body; or
• you want to locate the silage stack or pit within 50m of any river, lake, stream, pond, wetland or mean high water springs; or
• you want to produce silage on land other than production land; or
• you want to locate the silage stack or pit within 50m of any property boundary (excluding road boundaries); or
• the silage stack or pit will cause a nuisance and will be noxious, dangerous, offensive or objectionable beyond the boundaries of the property.