Federated Farmers says the Government's rejigging of the way rents for high-country pastoral leases are calculated is simpler and fairer.
Under the new system, which came into effect this week, rents for the 221 high-country properties owned by the Crown will be based on the land's earning capacity, rather than on land value.
Rents have so far been reviewed for 17 pastoral leases.
They will generally be higher than they were before, but Federated Farmers' high-country spokesperson William Rolleston says they will be fairer.
He says the change removes the distortion of the amenity value of rents which the previous Government had put in place, which made it prohibitively expensive for some farmers who perhaps lived in a nice place.
"It is a fairer way of doing things," Mr Rolleston says, "it's a more affordable way of doing things, and also there's an indication that the system of ascertaining what those rents are is simpler - and that cuts out a whole lot of costs both for the farmers and for the Crown. So I think that's a good thing too."
