$1m campaign against dirty dairying

Fonterra has announced a Waikato launch for a $1 million campaign against dirty dairying after Environment Waikato found more than half the farms it inspects are breaking effluent management rules.

Fonterra will add effluent infrastructure inspections to its annual dairy shed inspections of the Waikato's 4000-plus dairy farms once staff are trained this month. It will roll the scheme out across the remaining 6500 shareholders next season.

The Waikato was chosen for the pilot scheme, managing director of Fonterra Trade and Operations Gary Romano said, because Environment Waikato monitored only 15 per cent of the dairy farms in the region.

The latest Dairying and Clean Streams Accord report, out yesterday, shows 59 per cent of dairy farms failed to comply with effluent management rules, up from 52 per cent the previous drought season.

EW's compliance manager Rob Dragten said the council had monitored about 700 of the region's dairy farms. It found 59 per cent non-compliant and 140 farms had effluent entering waterways or on the brink of doing so. EW prosecuted only half a dozen of the most serious cases last season.

The accord report, published by Maf, said the national non-compliance level was 15 per cent, up three per cent on the previous year.

Northland delivered the worst results, with 61 per cent non-compliance, and Taranaki the best, with only four per cent non-compliance.

Mr Dragten said last season's results were expected to be worse than the previous drought season.

"There was less runoff in a drought because of the dry conditions," he said.

"Certainly it's not good enough. Clearly those farmers at the worst end of the scale need to lift their game."

Tim Deane, Fonterra's general manager of milk supply, expected the Waikato inspections to start late this month.

"We are going to look at infrastructure. The pond, is it the right size? The topography of the farm. The soil type. If we think there are some concerns we will send out a sustainable dairy systems consultant who will explain what is needed to be done to get things sorted."

Under Fonterra's Effluent Improvement Scheme, introduced after last year's accord report, farmers getting an effluent infringement notice face a $1500 deduction from their milk cheque and a $3000 for a successful prosecution.

- © Fairfax NZ News