Editorial: Sense at last
OPINION: For the first time in many years, a commonsense approach is emerging to balance environmental issues with the need for the nation's primary producers to be able to operate effectively.
The Horizons region set a record high of 93% compliance last season and chairman Bruce Gordon is hoping to see the same or better this year.
"We're really pleased and appreciative of the efforts farmers made last season across the board. We believe these improvements have come down to increased diligence by farmers, industry and council staff to achieve best practice effluent management," says Gordon.
"Contrary to the claims about dirty dairying in the region most farmers have committed significant time and money to reducing impacts on waterways. This is too often overlooked."
A total 510 of 920 dairy sheds were inspected in the past season focusing on farm operations which had previously been found non-compliant or at-risk of non-compliance. Of these 93% were graded as 'compliant'; up 2% on 2011/12. Non-complying farms were graded as either 'minor or non-technical compliance', 3.1%, or 'significant non-compliance', 3.8%.
"These results show a vast improvement in compliance rates over the last two years. This is further reinforced as last season we prioritised monitoring the most at-risk sheds only and the compliance rate still improved," says Gordon.
"The efforts made by the industry have also seen the number of infringement notices issued in the past two seasons has dropped from 38 to five and the number of abatement notices from 12 to four. There was also only one prosecution for dairy effluent offences that took place in the 2012/13 year, further signalling farmers commitment to improving our waterways."
Gordon says farmers' actions contribute to the efforts of the wider community, including territorial authorities and industry, to improve water quality.
"We are taking a coordinated approach to improve waterways across the board which sees our team work not only with dairy farmers, but also with industry and territorial authorities to reduce the levels of nutrients and bacteria entering our waterways," he says.
"Initiatives such as the Manawatu River Leaders' Accord have seen $30 million leveraged to improved sewage treatment plants and we continue to work with our territorial authorities to ensure they comply."
Industry groups such as Federated Farmers also recognise the collaborative effort of farmers, council and industry to improve waterways.
"The last five years has shown a marked improvement in the compliance rate on dairy farms in the Horizon region," says Manawatu-Rangitikei president Andrew Hoggard.
"This has come about from significant investment from farmers, not just in financial terms, but also in time and effort to make sure the right systems are in place. Industry and the council have also stepped up in terms of providing good advice and support to farmers in making improvements to their systems."
