Environment Waikato

Dave has been doing a lot of mowing lately. Well, for a while he wasn't because the mower broke... but that we from all the mowing it had been doing!

On our 1 hectare of land, we have 3 paddocks and 7 sheep. Lamby and John Campbell the ram live in the front paddock, and the girls get the other 2. The problem is that we don't have enough sheep to keep the grass down; and the biggest problem is that we can't really get any more.

According to rules put in place by Environment Waikato, we can only have 7 sheep on our black of land. They have put these rules in place to protect Lake Taupo, but its a bit ridiculous! We aren't putting anything in the soil that might end up contaminating the lake... we just have a few pet sheep that we like to go and pat!

I believe they have done this in order to keep Dairy farms away from the lake.. it would be a lot easier if they just said that! So in order to make sure our grass doesn't get ruined, Dave had to mow all the paddocks. It seems everyone on this street had to get tractors and stuff to sort theirs out too. With the size of our place, and the cost, it was just easier to do it with the mower.

The grass is now short in all the paddocks... however the sheep won't be running out any time soon!