A new set of national good management practice standards aimed at lifting environmental performance on dairy farms has been agreed between industry body DairyNZ and all dairy companies, with the support and input from a wide range of industry stakeholders.
The new Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord will now be taken to farmers over the coming months before being finalised and formally launched in time for the 2013/14 dairy season effective 1 August 2013.
"This is a new broader and more comprehensive commitment than the previous Clean Streams Accord as it will cover all dairy farmers, not just Fonterra suppliers," said John Luxton of DairyNZ.
Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson, Willy Leferink, says Federated Farmers and other farmer groups have been consulted throughout the development of the Accord and are to be one of the new Accord's supporting partners.
"This Accord is different because we are making commitments right across our industry to ensure farm improvements happen. Farmers are not only going to be involved in supporting change but will deliver it by meeting these targets. This includes the irrigation and fertiliser sectors too. Dairy farmers have made a lot of progress in a very short period of time but this is the biggest step yet in terms of getting everyone in our industry to work together by agreeing some common standards for industry good practice," he says.
The Accord covers five key areas:
Riparian management – requirements for excluding dairy cattle from significant waterways and drains (greater than one metre in width and deeper than 30cm that permanently contain water) and significant wetlands (identified by regional councils) within a phased timeframe; development of riparian planting plans
Nutrient management – improving management of Nitrogen and Phosphorus loss from dairy farming systems through an industry-wide monitoring and support system
Effluent management – compliance with regional council effluent management rules and continued investment in fit for purpose systems
Water use management - improving water use efficiency in irrigation systems and around the cowshed
Conversions – comprehensive good practice standards for all new dairy farms
Specifically the dairy industry is committing to a number of key timeframes including:
Dairy cattle excluded from waterways: 90% by 31 May 2014; 100% by 31 May 2017.
Dairy cattle excluded from wetlands : 100% by 31 May 2014
The Accord document with all its commitments is here »
DCANZ chairman and Fonterra director Malcolm Bailey said dairy companies will discuss the new commitments with farmers over the coming months.
"Fonterra, supported by DairyNZ, is planning 50 meetings around the country with its suppliers from March 4-15. Other companies ... will also be talking through the details of the accord with their farmer suppliers over the coming months," he said.
| Progress under the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord | 2004 | 2012 |
| Farms with Stock excluded from waterways | 67% | 87% |
| Farms with race crossing points with bridges or culverts | 92% | 99% |
| Farms with dairy effluent treated and discharged in compliance with Regional Council Resource Consent | 67% | 73% |
| Farms with nutrient budgets | 17% | 99% |
"Clearly, there’s more work to do – particularly on effluent management which is behind where we need it to be. But it’s important to give credit to Fonterra farmers for the work already done,” says Fonterra spokesperson Todd Muller.
"Our farmers have invested millions of dollars over the past nine years on environmental improvements. A new effluent system alone can cost up to $150,000. Clearly this is a huge commitment, but our farmers have stumped up because they know it’s important."
There are 4.6 million dairy cows in New Zealand on 1.64 million hectares of farmland, which is 0.612% of the country's land area. They are in about 11,800 herds, about 400 cows per herd.
In 2012 the dairy herd produced 20,517,000 tonnes of milk, a new record.
NZ milk production
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9 Comments
"Our farmers have invested millions of dollars over the past nine years on environmental improvements. A new effluent system alone can cost up to $150,000. Clearly this is a huge commitment, but our farmers have stumped up because they know it’s important."
because the rules changed and with councils we told em to...... more like it.
imagine the news if there was a fact checker...
Hmmm - I go to reply to Mists comments and there is quite a lot extra to his posting that is not showing as published.
The valid points made - What causes the algae? This is very important stuff.
Interest.co.nz - you have a few gremlins in the system at the moment - including the horrible time limit for posting. Very frustrating.
Check out the detail:
Dairy companies will:
From 31 May 2013, ensure that new dairy farm conversions* comply with the following standards before milk collection commences:
Dairy farms must have systems in place to manage all sources of effluent to ensure compliance with relevant regulatory obligations 365 days a year.
All animal races are to have bridges or culverts when crossing all waterways* and drains*.
Animals are to be excluded from waterways* and drains* that are at any point within the boundary of the dairy farm* wider than 1 metre and deeper than 30cm.
Dairy farms must have a nutrient management plan* in place.
All required regulatory consents have been sought (including consents for water take and use/irrigation).
From 31 May 2015 ensure that all new dairy farm conversions* have a riparian management plan* in place before milk collection commences.
Dairy companies will:
Arrange for the assessment of supplier dairy farms on a three yearly basis to review compliance (or ability to comply) with regulatory requirements (resource consents and regional plan rules). For farms identified as being at risk of non- compliance, a farm specific management plan shall be put in place to ensure 365-day compliance and an annual assessment will be undertaken until such time as the management plan is fully implemented and non-compliance risk is remedied.
This three yearly assessment programme is to be delivered according to the following timetable:
§ 85% of farms are being assessed by 31 May 2013
§ 100% of farms area being assessed by 31 May 2014.
By 31 May 2014 introduce programmes to reduce reliance on discharges to water from two-pond Farm Dairy Effluent (FDE) treatment systems in areas where land application would result in improved water quality outcomes.
Dairy companies will:
Collect data from all dairy farmers (using agreed protocols and consistent data collection systems*) and model N loss and N conversion efficiency from those farms according to the following phase-in timetable:
85% of dairy farms by 31 May 2014
100% of dairy farms by 31 May 2015
Provide N loss and N conversion efficiency performance information back to dairy farmers along with performance benchmarking, according to the following phase-in timetable:
85% of dairy farms by 30 November 2014
100% of dairy farms by 30 November 2015
In catchments recorded in an operative regional plan as being fully allocated in nutrient assimilative capacity terms, either:
reduce, as appropriate, the average per hectare N and/or P loss (with N modelled using Overseer®); and/or
engage in catchment programmes that seek to improve water quality outcomes in receiving waters using specified on-farm and/or catchment scale good management practices.
Manage P loss risk associated with sediment discharge, run off and overland flows by:
Meeting the stock exclusion and riparian management commitments (by dates specified in Section 5 of this Accord)
Ensuring that 100% of races and regular stock crossing points* over all waterways have bridges or culverts (by dates specified in the “Riparian Management” section of this Accord)
Promoting good practice in the on-farm management of tracks, races and winter cropping (on-going)
Promoting good practice in effluent management and meeting the effluent management commitments (by dates specified in the “Effluent Management” section of this Accord).
What Todd really means, but not telling. And he not saying nothing about no nitrogen inhibitors...
As ppl here have said, dairy is fine so long as farm working expenses are held so that a farmgate milk price up to and under the cost of production in other places (Europe, USA and S America - so as not to pull production on to the market) returns a margin for owners, workers and rural communities.
On the good side the farmgate price should be gently rising as volumes to China and India increase. But expect no 100% increase in farmgate price (the Chinense would not allow it). White gold never was....
The bad news is current margin is taken by the bank and fwe are suffering ag-inflation. And some asset value is being passed back to Fonterra as the TAF share price rises.
Things are out of wack when asset values rise but workers wages go down, and overseas folk happy to flee poor conditions become the bedrock of the workforce. The moving away from conditions where working on a dairy meant one was the owner or the sharemilker to one of corporate blah blah and syndicate this, absentee owner that is not good. Think of the local wealth lost as fewer move thru the sharemilker path or get stuck at contract milker...
For all the industry "value" created over the last 20 years, where is all the cash? Why aren't farmers buying residential and commercial property etc etc .... the cash we live off are just crumbs when one looks at the asset numbers.
http://www.dairynz.co.nz/file/fileid/45931
Was at a local meeting where the drainage works were being considered. The local Board was considering a levy on all catchment ratepayers (incl non farmers) based on a flat rate/ha. As dairy farmers we pay a dairy differential in additional to a dairy classification general rate. The local RC is set to double this rate this year (though been election year perhaps it won't!). With the doubling of the dairy differential plus the drainage levy we are looking at a 36% increase in rates - without the RC raising any portion of its general rate etc. There were 4 RC councillors present one said they will consider funding from dairy differential (which is tagged solely for water quality purposes), one said they will be fighting any increase in the dairy differential rate (no, they're not a dairy farmer) when it comes up for discussion, one gleefully told th
The RC rep told the meeting that drainage rates will increase by 450% if the levy went ahead. If the RC believes that dairy farmers will sit idly by and watch drainage rates increase 450%, dairy differential increase 100% (566% increase in last few years) in addition to general rate increases, they are in for a rude awakening. In fact one has to wonder if they would be acting legally in singleling out one sector of the rating base for such significant increases.
I was shocked by the attitude of regional council and their total destruction of riverbank vegetation. If we treated the environment like they do we'd be in jail with no key.
Fonterra just trying to take the heat of their new $100 million plus spend up.
The two new Chinese companies won't have any trouble attracting suppliers.
Yep the rules changed - but are they all for the better.
Was told that our local RC is going to go over to all effluent having to be held in above ground tanks in the future. Heard that two above ground tanks broke after they had effluent in them - good ol' chinese bolts! Imagine if a tank holds 3million litres of effluent - (remembering that it is diluted of course) and its sides give way..... Also hear some of the plastic liners down our way are giving cause for concern.............
Spot on waymad. A few indignant sheep farmers were issued infringement notices for winter grazing breaches. If you want the benefit of the dairy dollar via grazing you will be classed as a 'dairy farmer' for environment rules. Funny how some thought they would be immune.
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