'Green' dairy lauded

The hard work of the Greater Wellington Regional Council, dairy farming organisations and Wairarapa dairy farmers is being credited with a huge improvement in compliance with the Resource Management Act.

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 per cent in the 2010/11 year compared with just 53 per cent in 2007/08.

In the same period minor non-compliance has fallen from 41.2 per cent to 6.2 per cent and significant non-compliance dropped from 5.9 per cent to 1.6 per cent.

Federated Farmers Wairarapa dairy chairman Graeme Stuart said the rise was a reflection of dairy farmers in the Wairarapa region massively lifting their performance in terms of dairy compliance.

"Looking at where the rubber truly hits the road, in terms of significant non-compliance, then we've seen that fall to 1.6 per cent. This is all a result of farmers listening and then acting upon sound advice," Mr Stuart said.

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.

"There is a hunger to learn more about what we can do as farmers, and there's a sound economic reason to look at effluent," Mr Stuart said.

"DairyNZ estimates recycling dairy effluent as fertiliser can save the average farm $10,000 to $20,000 each year. There's much focus on what some people say we get wrong, but surely this is a time to celebrate a connected dairy industry effort that is working."

Mr Stuart is expecting a visit from Fonterra as part of its "every year, every farm" inspection programme on Friday, and said the visit is for Fonterra to verify the steps he is taking in order to ensure his farm is compliant with resource consent conditions.

"So we've not only had the council checking on our practices but Fonterra, too," he said. "Greater Wellington Regional Council really deserves credit for seeing farmers as part of the solution instead of being the problem. "

Greater Wellington environmental regulation manager Alistair Cross said the council believes the initiatives have made a difference.

"We're pleased with the high level of full compliance in our region, which helps contribute to achieving clean, healthy water in dairy areas," Mr Cross said.