New NZ dairy farm environmental standards

A new set of national good management practice benchmarks, aimed at lifting environmental performance on dairy farms, has been agreed between DairyNZ and dairy companies, with the support and input from a wide range of industry stakeholders including Federated Farmers.

The Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord replaces the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord (set up in 2003 and which expired at the end of last year) and will be effective for the 2013-14 dairy season from 1 August 2013. It is a more comprehensive plan than its predecessor, including commitments to targeted riparian planting plans, effluent management, comprehensive standards for new dairy farms and measures to improve the efficiency of water and nutrient use on farms.

The accord sets targets for excluding stock from waterways and for installing bridges or culverts. It requires farmers to provide information to their dairy company to allow for the modelling of nitrogen loss and nitrogen conversion efficiency. All dairy farm effluent systems are required to be capable of being compliant with regional council rules 365 days of the year. 

Dame Margaret Bazley, Chair of Environment Canterbury, welcomed the accord, saying it is “aligned with our approach in recent years to work alongside the dairy industry and farmers to build understanding of good practice and improve on-farm environmental performance.”

“We look forward to collectively working with the dairy industry and farmers with a shared understanding of what needs to be done, and what can be done to achieve improved freshwater outcomes in Canterbury,” said Dame Margaret.

Federated Farmers Dairy Chairperson Willy Leferink said the organisation’s signature on the Water Accord “is the individual farmer’s commitment to do all we can to protect the water quality in our streams and rivers.”

“As dairy farmers we have to lift our game on water quality,” he said. “If we want to meet the aspirations we have as an industry, if we want to meet government expectations and earn the respect of the wider community, then farming sustainably is the way ahead.

“As farmers we also recognise that we impact the environment. That is why this Water Accord exists, because it is about us farmers owning the issue from the farm gate right throughout the supply chain to the finished product.”

Leferink claimed the dairy industry is more likely to be successful through “a joined-up effort made up of councils, dairy companies, fertiliser companies in concert with local businesses and local communities … Improving water also needs the input of our colleagues from the wider primary industries too.”

The Water Accord is one of the first actions for the new dairy industry strategy, Making Dairy Farming Work for Everyone, which could see dairying double its export value by 2025.