Farmers' call
OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.
Fonterra is backing a farmer-led project to protect water quality in Bay of Plenty lakes.
Farmers from the Rerewhakaaitu community haved worked with Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Fonterra, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, AgFirst and PerrinAg to develop a farm-specific nutrient profile and produce 48 tailored farm environment plans (FEP).
The FEPs will help farmers minimise nitrogen and phosphorus losses to waterways.
This 18-month project involved farmers in the catchments of Lakes Rotomahana, Okareka, Okaro, Rotokakahi, Rerewhakaaitu and Tarawera, plus some adjoining farms in the Rangitaiki and Waikato River catchments.
Project Rerewhakaaitu is the farmer group at the centre of the project.
Andrew Kempson from Fonterra’s sustainable dairying programme, says they were keen to trial their new farm plan system — Tiaki — in a region with no onfarm nutrient limits to help farmers stay ahead of the game voluntarily.
“Tiaki farm plans also consider sediment and bacterial losses and how to reduce them.
“Fonterra staff have worked with 32 dairy farmers, covering a bit over 5000 hectares. Collectively there were 1060 onfarm actions identified in the new Tiaki farm plans in the Tarawera lakes catchments. We were also able to compare nutrient losses between land use, soil types and the different catchments.”
Project Rerewhakaaitu chairman Chris Sutton says local farmers have worked together since the early 2000s to lead in protecting local lakes.
“This latest project helps us work alongside industry and the regional council so each farmer gets their own customised farm environment plan with an Overseer assessment of their ‘nutrient footprint’,” he says.
“We know nutrient rules might affect our farmers one day, so it’s best we understand our footprint and have a set of actions farmers can implement on-farm. We also agreed to share nutrient loss data with the regional council.”
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
OPINION: The phasing out of copper network from communications is understandable.
Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.
OPINION: Westland Milk may have won the contract to supply butter to Costco NZ but Open Country Dairy is having…
OPINION: The Gene Technology Bill has divided the farming community with strong arguments on both the pros and cons of…