A new set of national good management practice standards aimed at lifting environmental performance on dairy farms has been agreed between industry body DairyNZ and all dairy companies, with the support and input from a wide range of industry stakeholders.
The new Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord will now be taken to farmers over the coming months before being finalised and formally launched in time for the 2013/14 dairy season effective 1 August 2013.
"This is a new broader and more comprehensive commitment than the previous Clean Streams Accord as it will cover all dairy farmers, not just Fonterra suppliers," said John Luxton of DairyNZ.
Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson, Willy Leferink, says Federated Farmers and other farmer groups have been consulted throughout the development of the Accord and are to be one of the new Accord's supporting partners.
"This Accord is different because we are making commitments right across our industry to ensure farm improvements happen. Farmers are not only going to be involved in supporting change but will deliver it by meeting these targets. This includes the irrigation and fertiliser sectors too. Dairy farmers have made a lot of progress in a very short period of time but this is the biggest step yet in terms of getting everyone in our industry to work together by agreeing some common standards for industry good practice," he says.
The Accord covers five key areas:
Riparian management – requirements for excluding dairy cattle from significant waterways and drains (greater than one metre in width and deeper than 30cm that permanently contain water) and significant wetlands (identified by regional councils) within a phased timeframe; development of riparian planting plans
Nutrient management – improving management of Nitrogen and Phosphorus loss from dairy farming systems through an industry-wide monitoring and support system
Effluent management – compliance with regional council effluent management rules and continued investment in fit for purpose systems
Water use management - improving water use efficiency in irrigation systems and around the cowshed
Conversions – comprehensive good practice standards for all new dairy farms
Specifically the dairy industry is committing to a number of key timeframes including:
Dairy cattle excluded from waterways: 90% by 31 May 2014; 100% by 31 May 2017.
Dairy cattle excluded from wetlands : 100% by 31 May 2014
The Accord document with all its commitments is here »
DCANZ chairman and Fonterra director Malcolm Bailey said dairy companies will discuss the new commitments with farmers over the coming months.
"Fonterra, supported by DairyNZ, is planning 50 meetings around the country with its suppliers from March 4-15. Other companies ... will also be talking through the details of the accord with their farmer suppliers over the coming months," he said.
| Progress under the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord | 2004 | 2012 |
| Farms with Stock excluded from waterways | 67% | 87% |
| Farms with race crossing points with bridges or culverts | 92% | 99% |
| Farms with dairy effluent treated and discharged in compliance with Regional Council Resource Consent | 67% | 73% |
| Farms with nutrient budgets | 17% | 99% |
"Clearly, there’s more work to do – particularly on effluent management which is behind where we need it to be. But it’s important to give credit to Fonterra farmers for the work already done,” says Fonterra spokesperson Todd Muller.
"Our farmers have invested millions of dollars over the past nine years on environmental improvements. A new effluent system alone can cost up to $150,000. Clearly this is a huge commitment, but our farmers have stumped up because they know it’s important."
There are 4.6 million dairy cows in New Zealand on 1.64 million hectares of farmland, which is 0.612% of the country's land area. They are in about 11,800 herds, about 400 cows per herd.
In 2012 the dairy herd produced 20,517,000 tonnes of milk, a new record.
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