Farmers getting ahead of effluent watchdogs

Many farmers, a large majority from greater Waikato, soaked up information from the 60-plus exhibitors.

Environment Waikato’s pro-active approach is having its effect – farm visits, identifying problem areas, working with farmers to suggest better practice and pointing them in the direction of industry specialists who can help. 

EW says it has seen a much better ‘buy in’ to the discussion by farmers since mid-2014 when it ceased helicopter over-flights. But it continues to remind farmers that officialdom must act on reported incidences of pollution.

On many farms existing infrastructure was quite often “nearly” compliant, and the authorities are keen to take a softly-softly approach to allow farmers time to investigate solutions, raise funds and complete upgrades, before intervening.

One major issue of older or inherited systems is leakage – easy to detect during drought but much harder in winter months or during prolonged rainfall.

One exhibitor, Opus International, offers its Opus Pond Drop Test (OPDT) as a means of monitoring pond levels very accurately to determine if there is leakage. 

For 48 hours they monitor pond depth and use sensors to measure temperature, relative humidity and, importantly, transpiration (evaporation) in the surrounding area. The depth during the 48 hours, minus what would be normal evaporation, accurately determines whether or not the pool is leaking. 

The data can be used as part of the farm’s Dairy Effluent Warrant of Fitness, showing authorities there is or isn’t a problem.

Another notable exhibition theme was “now that we have the effluent contained in pond or tank, let’s make sure we manage it properly”. The main thrust was ensuring effluent is mixed regularly, with no crust allowed to form. 

Mixing looks after the physical properties of a holding area and gets air into the effluent, encouraging aerobic fermentation, the multiplication of friendly bacteria and a resultant reduction in odours. 

One such aerator – deceptively simple – was shown by Vertec. Floats akin to a kayak have plastic paddles between driven by electric motors ranging from as little as 0.75kW for a pond with a surface area of up to 80m2 up to 11kW for 800m2.

Another record crowd

At least 650 people attended the Effluent Expo.

The record turnout has pleased organiser and Waikato Regional Council’s environmental farming systems adviser Electra Kalaugher.

Those attending the fifth annual event at Mystery Creek last week included farm owners, sharemilkers, farm managers and workers, and agri-industry professionals.

About 55 exhibitors, indoors and outdoors, took part, says Kalaugher.

“The continued excellent turnout highlights farmers’ commitment to improving their environmental performance despite the low payout this year.

“About half the expo visitors were farm owners, who are the decision makers for major investments like upgrading their effluent systems.”

Turnout was good from regions beyond Waikato, including council staff from Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.

Outdoor irrigation seminars were designed to help farmers work out what kind of irrigation systems would best suit their farms.

The expo sponsors were Waikato Regional Council and DairyNZ.

“We’d like to thank DairyNZ for their ongoing support of this important event,” says Kalaugher.