29 August 2011

Dairy compliance continues to improve in Wellington region

A rise in dairy farming compliance with the Resource Management Act in the Wellington region is a positive reflection of work between the regional council, dairy farming organisations and the region’s dairy farmers.

Greater Wellington’s annual compliance monitoring results show that for the Wellington region full compliance with resource consent conditions, the Resource Management Act and regional regulations was 92% in the 2010/11 year compared with just 53% in 2007/08.

Over the same period minor non-compliance has fallen from 41.2% to 6.2% and significant non-compliance dropped from 5.9% to 1.6%.

The rise in compliance comes after Greater Wellington instituted annual compliance visits for dairy farms in 2008 and follows a similar rise last year Greater Wellington has also supported DairyNZ in running on-farm seminars to improve practices around dairy effluent management.

“We believe those initiatives have made a difference, and our region’s dairy farmers deserve recognition for their efforts,” Greater Wellington Environmental Regulation Manager Alistair Cross says.

“We’re pleased with the high level of full compliance in our region, which helps contribute to achieving clean, healthy water in dairy areas. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with farmers and farming industry organisations to improve compliance.”

ENDS

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