Waituna farmers’ catchment plan launched on good progress

14 December 2011

Waituna farmers’ catchment plan launched on back of good progress

Dairy farmers in the Waituna catchment have released an action plan outlining the good progress they have made on work to protect the Waituna Lagoon.

The catchment action plan covers the work completed by dairy farmers since February. It also lays out the steps dairy farmers will undertake over the next 12 months, and how they will work together with other stakeholders to ensure a sustainable future for the Waituna Lagoon and the local community.

Waituna dairy farmer Gerald Spain is pleased that local farmers’ vision for the Waituna Lagoon has been set out in the catchment action plan.

“As locals we are proud of the steps we are taking to look after our lagoon. This plan lays out what we want for the lagoon and our community, what we’ve done so far, and how we want to work over the next year,” Gerald says.

“We’re ahead in the progress we’re making. I don’t believe we would have made this much progress if we were under regulations. Credit to Environment Southland they’ve given us space and time and the farmers here have become a team and have got things done.”

Local farmers are also involved in the Waituna Catchment Group which includes the Council and a wide group of interested parties.

The catchment action plan was produced by dairy farmers in the Waituna Lagoon catchment with the support of DairyNZ.

DairyNZ Regional Policy Manager James Ryan says the farmers are working with others and they are determined to be transparent by reporting what they are doing for the lagoon.

“They recognise they have an important role to play in maintaining the lagoon’s health and it is great that they’ve made fast progress on their farms.”

Gerald says individual farm assessment visits carried out by DairyNZ, Fonterra, Environment Southland and organised by Federated Farmers in June helped farmers work out where they could focus their efforts.

“Every dairy farmer in the catchment supported these voluntary visits. It’s a big thing to do, to open up your farm to people to walk every paddock and assess every corner with a fine toothed comb. It takes a good deal of trust.

“Those visits showed that actions need to be tailored to every single farm in the catchment. That’s why every dairy farm has an individual action plan.

“It let us work on real things we could do on our farms over a 12 month period and we’re seeing the difference. In the few months since those visits 16 farmers have already had a follow up visit and they’ve completed all their actions and they’ve gone further.”

Some of the actions for farmers to carry out include building and maintaining riparian areas, installing sediment traps, and changing how drainage networks are maintained to reduce bank slumping.

Over half the actions in those plans centre around managing sediment, which contains phosphorus, to stop it getting into the lagoon.

Around a third of the actions involve nutrient and effluent management.

“In 12 months’ time we’ll open ourselves up to scrutiny again and have revisits so we can show our progress. Fingers crossed we’ll get a good result for the lagoon’s health with the science too.”

Gerald says winter grazing inspections carried out by Environment Southland over the past winter also showed full compliance with winter grazing rules in the catchment.

“We were managing our crop paddocks well, often going well beyond the regulatory requirements. That’s a big plus for us.”

About DairyNZ
DairyNZ is the industry good organisation representing New Zealand’s dairy farmers. We are funded by a levy on milksolids and our purpose is to secure and enhance the profitability, sustainability and competitiveness of New Zealand dairy farming. We deliver value to farmers through leadership, influencing, investing, partnering with other organisations and through our own strategic capability. Our work includes research and development to create practical on-farm tools, leading on-farm adoption of best practice farming, promoting careers in dairying and advocating for farmers with central and regional government. For more information, visit www.dairynz.co.nz

ENDS

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