Dairy farms getting dirtier

Dairy farmers’ compliance with effluent rules deteriorated for the second year in a row in 2009, according to the latest annual report from the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord, prompting Fonterra Cooperative Group to institute annual farm checks.

The update shows the average level of significant non-compliance worsened to 15 per cent  in 2008/09 from 12 per cent  in the previous year.

Farmers in Northland had the worst results, with full compliance listed at 39 per cent  in the latest year, down from 43 per cent  in 2008. Compliance in Waikato fell to 41 per cent  from 48 per cent  and Canterbury declined to 43 per cent  from 46 per cent .

Taranaki was the shining star, holding steady on 96 per cent  compliance. 

The latest report drew immediate criticism for the dairy industry by Agriculture Minister David Carter, who said the report painted a "totally unacceptable" picture.

"Until every farmer takes responsibility for improving effluent management, the environment and dairy’s reputation will suffer," he said.

Fonterra will double the resources it devotes to assisting farmers to manage their effluent, according to Gary Romano, managing director, Fonterra Trade and Operations.

When asked on a conference call to quantify what Fonterra will spend, he said “additional cost runs into seven digits for us,” suggesting the world’s biggest dairy exporter will expend about $1 million.

That money will fund a doubling of Fonterra’s sustainable dairying specialists who can provide advice to farmers.

“Our goal is to halve significant non-compliance with council dairy effluent rules within 18 months, then trending to zero,” he said.

The update said the increase in non-compliance partly reflects widened monitoring that now includes feed pads and land used for other ancillary functions.

Carter said New Zealand dairy’s international reputation will be tarnished unless the nation can back up its claims to sustainable farming practices.

The snapshot “tells a totally unacceptable story of effluent management". 

"Regardless of whether this is because farmers don’t have the right tools, don’t know how to comply, or simply don’t care, behaviour has to change.”

Protecting both the nation's and its own clean and green image, characterised in the tourism industry’s 100 per cent  Pure brand, has taken on a new urgency for Fonterra in the wake of the San Lu tainted milk scandal in China and increased consumer demand worldwide for product traceability and accountability.

Fonterra responded within an hour of the Accord report's release with its increased effluent checks initiative.

The effluent checks will be piloted in the Waikato, effective immediately, with a national rollout from the start of 2010/2011.

Under Fonterra’s new programme, every farm’s dairy effluent infrastructure will be checked each year as part of the existing Farm Dairy Assessment.

Those that fail to comply will be referred to a sustainable dairying specialist. Fonterra said the new measures complement its Effluent Improvement Scheme introduced last year, under which it can deduct $1,500 from a farmer’s milk cheque for infringements and $3,000 for prosecutions.

The report card didn’t mark dairy farmers down as a fail in every respect.

Two of the five Accord 2007 targets have been met, with dairy cattle excluded from waterways on 80 per cent of farms and almost 100 per cent  of farmers now having a nutrient budget - a major area of non-compliance a year earlier.

- BusinessDesk