The right to farm is being tested in the Nambucca Valley with neighbours of a pig farm complaining about odour, and possible pollution.
The council has deferred making any decisions on the complaints until it inspects the property next month.
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I know Kate and her partner very well and I have visited them on their ‘farm’ many times. Kate is absolutely right that the pigs do not smell at all. They are free range so there is no accumulation of excrement. The paddocks are lush and green and there is very little opportunity for any runoff to foul any waterways, not that there appeared to be any creeks within shotgun of the pig runs. The worst that could be said about the pigs is that they get a bit boisterous at feeding time, but as this is during the day there is little to disturb the still of the country night.
If a person cannot set up what amounts to little more than a hobby farm in a rural area then the country might as well forget about farming altogether. I don’t know what the neighbours expected but rural is where cows and pigs and chickens are grown and if Kate is able to humanely rear a small annual herd of pigs to supply the local market then good on her, we need more small entrepeneurs who are willing to do the right thing by the animals and by the local business people.