Southland farmers 'getting better at following rules'

Dairy farmers make a lot of money out of what comes out of their cows – but the other stuff that comes out can also cost them a lot of money.

Dealing with the profit-making milk is the easy part of the business; it's the effluent that is causing them – and the environment – headaches.

Farmers need to manage the poo that is dropped in and around their milking sheds efficiently and effectively, without affecting the environment.

The solution sounds simple. Capture all the manure – which is valuable fertiliser – store it until the conditions are right, depending on resource consent conditions, and spray it on to pastures, at the right levels and at the right time so the grass uses it to grow.

Some Southland dairy farmers are leading the way with innovative effluent systems designed to deal with the waste – see the story on David Hughes, above.

And the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord's Snapshot of Progress report, released this week, revealed Southland dairy farmers are getting better at following Environment Southland effluent rules and consent conditions, with 69 per cent now fully complying. It also showed 96 per cent of Southland dairy farms have fenced off their protected waterways – well ahead of the 90 per cent target to be achieved in 2012.

Environment Southland dairy liasion officer Russell Winter said the province's farmers were getting better at following the rules and were developing innovative ways of dealing with it.

"I've never told anyone that they're perfect, I always leave room for improvement. But they are doing a better job at improving their systems."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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