Gippsland farmers able to keep 5000 tyres

The Whittaker family has won the right to retain 5000 tyres on their property, but must still remove 1800.

Not enough: Adrian Whittaker has won the right to keep 5000 tyres on his property, but it’s still not enough to cover his maize silage. Picture: Zoe Phillips

THE Environment Protection Authority has backed down on its demand that a dairy farming family remove all tyres from their Gippsland property.

The Whittaker family was facing $396,000 fine if they failed to remove all 6800 used tyres they used to weigh down silage on one of their three Denison dairy farms servicing a 2500-cow herd.

The move contradicted the EPA’s own policy, which states farmers may have up to 5000 used tyres on-farm for agricultural purposes.

But after repeated appeals from the family, the intervention of Agriculture Victoria and The Weekly Times, the EPA backed down, informing the Whittakers they could keep 5000 tyres.

In the meantime the EPA is drafting new regulations, which from July 1 will force Victorian farmers to register all old tyres, dairy effluent ponds and tonnes of chicken manure on their properties.

EPA’S RED TAPE TIE UP

The Whittakers told The Weekly Times they welcomed the EPA’s backdown to allow 5000 tyres to remain on the property, but say they needed the additional 1800 to weigh down the covers on 120ha of maize silage they were about to harvest.

As it stands they will have to send the extra 1800 tyres for recycling, at cost of $6 each.

“We have a genuine need for these tyres and can’t move to another site,” Bree Whittaker said.

One of the flaws identified by the family was that the EPA had now decided to apply the 5000-tyre threshold to one property, yet that farm supplied silage to two other farms and a total of four dairies.