Waikato Regional Council will look at reinstating aerial monitoring of high-risk farms.

Aerial surveillance could be brought in to crack down on high-risk polluters but farmers are worried it could be a return to the "bad old days".

Waikato Regional Council's environmental and services performance committee has recommended to Thursday's full council meeting a reinstatement of aerial surveillance of farms.

Surveillance would be both announced and unannounced using satellite imagery, drones, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

ANDREA FOX/STUFF Waikato regional councillor Stu Husband is against the return of aerial monitoring.

But dairy farmer and regional councillor Stu Husband said it's a massive step backwards. The current regime of putting boots on the ground has led to good relationships between industry and regulator and farmers no longer refer to council as spies.

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"It definitely smacks of big brother watching you," Husband said. "Why in God's name would you do this?"

KELLY HODEL/STUFF In the past three years, just 76 of the 808 high-risk dairy farms in Waikato have invested in better effluent infrastructure.

A decade of helicopter monitoring for RMA consent breaches ceased in 2014 after outrage from the farming community.

Farmers argued it was an invasion of privacy. That assertion was accepted by council's investigations manager.

"I personally think a farm is our home and, under the privacy laws, we shouldn't have choppers or drones spying on us from above."

STUFF Waikato regional councillor Fred Lichtwark says farmers want polluters weeded out.

Of the 4255 dairy farms in Waikato, 808 farms have inadequate effluent storage and are at high risk of polluting. That's 19 per cent.

In the past three years, only 76 of those have upgraded their infrastructure. At that rate, it would take 27 years to upgrade all high-risk farms to standard.

Cr Fred Lichtwark, also a farmer, called for a return of aerial monitoring in 2017 to weed out the "ratbags".

GERALD PIDDOCK/STUFF Waikato Rural Support Trust chairman Neil Bateup says aerial monitoring won't be welcomed.

"It's why I was elected," Lichtwark said. "Farmers put me here and they said they wanted the industry tidied up. It's protecting their own interests, really."

Before putting wings in the air, staff will need to be swayed by evidence – be that a tip-off from the public or a history of non-compliance, he said.

"Certainly, it's not going on forays around the countryside looking for trouble."

Under the last aerial monitoring regime, farmers were left stressed, said Waikato-Hauraki-Coromandel Rural Support Trust chairman Neil Bateup​.

"They were actually causing disturbance to stock and causing stock to break out of milking sheds. Herd breaking out of electric fences, herds breaking out of yards, running back down races when people were bringing them in. There were a number of issues," Bateup said.

He said council's plan won't be welcomed.

"If they do it, they need to think very carefully about how they do it and the effect on farms and the farming community. There are enough stressors on farmers at the moment with various other things including M bovis."

Waikato Federated Farmers president Andrew McGiven supports council's approach to targeting high-risk farms but wants assurances it won't be an aerial free-for-all.

"We are still totally opposed to any blanket helicopter or drone monitoring but understand some sort of aerial monitoring would probably need to be done – under the risk-based approach – on specific properties," McGiven said.

"They've still got to make that personal approach to farmers where they drive up the driveway and knock on the door.

"If the farmer turns around and says get stuffed, well, they are asking for problems."