Council impressed with compliance by Auckland dairy farmers

Dairy farm compliance with the Auckland Regional Council’s (ARC) environmental standards has reached 94 per cent, up from 77 per cent last season.

A report to the ARC’s Environmental Management Committee meeting states that the number of farms that were fully compliant with council requirements rose from 45 per cent (140 farms) in 2008/09 to 62 per cent in 2009/10 (195 farms), and only minor non-compliance represented 32 per cent this year (100 farms).

Minor non-compliance is mostly a technical issue within system maintenance, construction or operation and does not include any effluent discharge.

The results of the ARC’s dairy farm inspections show only 6 per cent (20 farms) of Auckland’s dairy farms had serious environmental compliance issues in the 2009/10 season compared to 8 per cent (25 farms) the previous season, and was due mostly to effluent discharge or potential discharge into waterways.

During the 2009/10 dairy season, enforcement action for breaches recorded by the ARC were significantly fewer. The ARC’s annual inspection saw 22 abatement notices, 14 infringement notices and 1 warning letter issued to the 315 dairy farms in the region.

"The improvement is impressive and indicates the effort and understanding undertaken by the region’s dairy farmers," says Councillor Dianne Glenn, Chair of the ARC’s Environmental Management Committee.

“They have done a great job and have shown a real desire to get things right. We all need to be vigilant and see if we can further reduce the serious non-compliance this season,” she says.

Follow-up inspections will continue on farms that were found to have moderate or major non-compliance until all problems have been satisfactorily resolved.

ARC’s Rural Compliance Team conducted follow-up visits to all non-compliant farms and promoted good practice to resolve issues. Help is provided by Fonterra’s Sustainable Dairying Advisor who has visited all the farms issued with enforcement notices.

ENDS

© Scoop Media