Fonterra update with Mike Cronin: Wetland development and Dairy Woman of the Year

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Fonterra is contributing to a large wetland in Central Hawke's Bay, to help with run-off and water quality.

The wetland, which is being constructed in Tukipo, will break down nitrogen from farm run-off and improve the health of surrounding waterways.

Fonterra partnered with Hawke's Bay Regional Council, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and the Tukipo Catchment Group, to create the wetland.

"It's pretty exciting" Managing Director of Co-operative Affairs Mike Cronin told The Country Sport Breakfast's Brian Kelly.

The wetland will be 1.6 hectares and planted with 24,000 native trees. In other words, it will be "huge," Cronin said.

It will cost $350,000 to build, which was made up of $250,000 contributed by Fonterra's Sustainable Catchment Programme, and $100,000 from the Regional Council.

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This wetland will capture and treat water from around 180 hectares of the catchment, Cronin said.

"I'm not so hot on the science but what they tell me is that ... the bacteria in the wetland soils, they break down the nitrogen from the farm run-off and the leaching, and it just has the high quality water going back to the streams."

Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year

Meanwhile, Whanganui sharemilker Belinda Price was named the 2021 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year recently, Cronin said.

Price received the reward from Fonterra's CEO Miles Hurrell following the Dairy Women's Network Step Up Together Conference in Taupo.

"I was actually lucky enough to be down at Taupo with Miles for the presentation of the award. There was a lot of suspense and drum rolling going on there before the announcement," Cronin said.

Price started in the dairy industry 12 years ago on a sharemilking contract. Now she and her husband owned a dairy farm in Taranaki and sharemilked 650 cows in Nukumaru.

Price was also a graduate of the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, and had many mentorship roles within the industry – including PrimaryITO, DairyNZ's Dairy Connect Programme and Rural Support.

She also had roles with Environment Leaders Taranaki and DairyNZ's Step Change Pilot Programme.

"And she's got a family, and she does sports and all those things - it just made me tired," Cronin laughed.

"She's just phenomenal."

The Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year was one of the only awards that brought dairy and women together and the co-op was proud to have sponsored it since 2012, Cronin said.