Federated Farmers want better data matching for clean water

11 December 2014

Federated Farmers want better data matching to achieve cleaner water

Federated Farmers is, on the whole, pleased with the progress towards meeting targets in the Sustainable Dairying Water Accord, which issued its first year achievement report today.

But Dairy Chair Andrew Hoggard says there is a bottleneck, where different dairy companies are using different reporting systems, that needs to be ironed out.

“It’s not that farmers haven’t done the work, because we have done a whole lot. I know it’s probably not surprising there is this compatibility issue, given this is the first year all these different entities have been working together, but farmers have invested a lot in riparian fencing in particular, and it’s annoying to not be able to claim full credits for the work done. If we haven’t got one lot of paperwork lining up with another lot of paperwork with everyone using the same criteria we can’t give ourselves a pass mark, so I’m pleased to see sorting this out is a priority. We want to ensure that the companies make sure that we have it right for next year” Mr Hoggard says.

He says though the target for exclusion of stock from waterways has not been achieved, an unverified 94 percent exclusion rate, compared with the 90 percent target, sounds pretty good to him and full exclusion is not too far away. Likewise, the audits of farms, detailed local advice on riparian planting and setting up a national network of highly qualified advisors.

“This gives us a solid foundation for getting the management tools and advice to farmers to achieve the longer term aims of the Accord.”

“I’m sure that the news media will highlight one or two cases where the targets were missed. With the nutrient management data not aligning I am not surprised that we didn’t quite achieve the target. As everyone in the industry will be well aware, as I keep nagging them about it, improving data collection systems is the solution. It will not only provide more accurate and quicker information to the industry, but save farmers from having to fill out another bloody form, as well as provide the farmers themselves with more relevant and timely information.”

Mr Hoggard finished by saying “It’s been hard work over the past few years to get agreement from farmers, local bodies and the dairy companies and setting the goals and the timelines to achieve them. I’m confident we will meet those total achievement targets.”

ENDS

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