Dairy Effluent Compliance Heading in the Right Direction

MEDIA RELEASE
17TH MARCH 2011

Dairy Effluent Compliance Heading in the Right Direction

DairyNZ says work the dairy industry is doing to address effluent non-compliance is starting to pay off.

The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord results released today cover the 2009/10 season and shows similar results to the 2008/09 season in meeting the Accord targets.

Areas with the highest rate of full compliance include Taranaki (96%), Otago (95%), Wellington (89%) and Horizons (81%). The lowest is Northland (43%).

DairyNZ CEO Dr Tim Mackle says in places where DairyNZ, the dairy companies and Federated Farmers have worked collaboratively with councils to ensure farmers know what they need to do to be compliant, the results are beginning to show.

“In Canterbury in 2009/10 we launched the ‘Check It, Fix It, Get It Right’ campaign aimed at getting farmers to know what they needed to look for, and what they needed to do, and the results speak for themselves.

“There was a marked improvement in Canterbury, with full compliance increasing from 43% to 59% and serious non-compliance decreasing from 19% to 8%. We want to see compliance much higher, and non-compliance lower, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

DairyNZ has extended its work in this area to other councils, developing compliance checklists for an additional eight regional council regions (Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Horizons and Southland) and good results are coming through.

“While the 2009/10 figures for the Waikato are a concern, Environment Waikato reported earlier this week that its aerial monitoring so far this season shows 11% non-compliance. That’s a major drop from the 25% reported from aerial and ground-based inspections last year,” says Dr Mackle.

“We, along with Fonterra, the other dairy companies and Federated Farmers have got a raft of initiatives in this area, because we’re serious about getting it right. It’s essential for the industry, from both an environmental and reputational point of view.”

The initiatives include the launch last month of the first-ever design code of practice and design standards for farm dairy effluent. This work, led by DairyNZ, was two years in the making, and is aimed at giving farmers confidence that the people they are contracting to supply services and equipment in this area know the standards effluent systems have to meet, and are able to design systems to meet those standards.

Ends

ABOUT DAIRYNZ
DairyNZ is the industry good organisation representing New Zealand’s dairy farmers. We are funded by a levy on milksolids and our purpose is to secure and enhance the profitability, sustainability and competitiveness of New Zealand dairy farming. We deliver value to farmers through leadership, influencing, investing, partnering with other organisations and through our own strategic capability. Our work includes research and development to create practical on-farm tools, leading on-farm adoption of best practice farming, promoting careers in dairying and advocating for farmers with central and regional government. For more information, visit www.dairynz.co.nz

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