Dairy Effluent Report released: compliance rates by district

Environment Canterbury has released the Canterbury Region Dairy Report for the 2010/2011 season which provides commentary and regional details that expand on the preliminary compliance figures released in July.

Sixty-five per cent of Canterbury dairy farms were fully compliant with their effluent discharge consent or permitted activity conditions in 2010/2011, an improvement from 59 per cent compliance in the previous season. In total 917 dairy farms (out of 921) received a consent compliance visit by an Environment Canterbury Resource Management Officer.

“Compliance visits are unannounced and are an important means of assessing the environmental performance of dairy farms,” said Environment Canterbury Commissioner Tom Lambie.

“This proactive monitoring approach is supplemented by our response to complaints from members of the public about potential environment breaches.

“In addition to checking dairy effluent compliance the Resource Management Officers typically check a range of factors which have the potential to impact on waterways, such as effluent discharges to water or run-off from farm tracks.”

The rate of minor non-compliance among dairy farmers fell to 25.4 per cent, from 33 per cent last year. Examples of minor non-compliance include an incomplete management plan or minor ponding of dairy effluent. The rate of significant non-compliance was 9.7 per cent compared with 8.4 per cent last season, but just two years ago was at 19 per cent.

Overall 95 per cent of the 10,137 consent conditions were in full compliance (for both consents and permitted activity rules). From next year the 120 farms operating under permitted activity rules will need to apply for resource consents as a requirement of the newly operative Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan.

“Dairy effluent – if managed effectively – is an important source of nutrients for pasture growth and when applied correctly the faecal bacteria are absorbed into the soil.”

“We have been working in collaboration with industry partners and other stakeholders over the past few years to improve the levels of dairy effluent compliance and environmental performance.”

This started in 2008 when Environment Canterbury initiated a meeting with industry partners, Fish & Game and Forest & Bird, to discuss ways to improve levels of dairy effluent compliance. A combined industry and Environment Canterbury group has been working collaboratively since then to improve the rate of dairy effluent compliance.

Geographical consent compliance results

The consent-based compliance results have been provided for each district for informative purposes only. No conclusions have been attempted as the numbers are quite small for some districts and there are a number of factors that impact on compliance rates. If consistent trends can be established in future seasons this district-based analysis may be extended. The factors influencing compliance rates include farm size, years in operation, soil type, terrain, and rainfall.

Ashburton – which has 32% of Canterbury’s dairy farms – recorded the highest level of full dairy effluent compliance at 75.1%. Selwyn district – which has another 20% of farms – recorded 51% compliance.

Table from the Dairy Effluent Report 2010/2011

While the Waitaki district recorded only 50% full compliance there are just 18 farms being monitored and the result is up from 24% in the previous season.

“We are continuing to work closely with farmers and industry partners to understand the reasons behind the occurrence of significant non-compliance and will continue to develop and implement tactics to reduce the rate of non-compliance,” said Tom Lambie.

Environment Canterbury is a member of the Canterbury Dairy Effluent Group along with dairy companies Fonterra, NZ Dairies and Synlait, industry groups DairyNZ and Federated Farmers, as well as the South Island Dairying Development Centre and AgITO.

Read the report (736 kB)