AGRIFOOD INVESTMENT WEEK &
CENTRAL DISTRICTS FIELD DAYS

March is a very busy time of year on the agriculture calendar, with Central Districts Field Days, Ballance Farm Environment Awards and AgriFood Investment Week all happening next week. The latter aims to connect, challenge and grow the agrifood industry through the development of innovation, investment and people. With a programme of agrifood events, the week looks to engage and bring together participants and conversations from across the food value chain: from molecule to mouth.

One of these events is the Accelerate25 stock water reticulation seminars, which are being held in the ASB Innovation Hub at Central District Field Days at Manfeild Park, Feilding. These free seminars will look at the positive financial benefits of investing in stock water reticulation, along with issues to consider, practical solutions, the planning process and possible government assistance for group schemes. It would be great to see you at either the Thursday morning or Friday afternoon workshops, which you can pre register for here.

FRESHWATER CHANGES & ONE PLAN UPDATE

In February the changes to the National Policy Statement (NPS) on Freshwater Management were announced by Prime Minister Bill English and the Minister for the Environment, Dr Nick Smith. Horizons welcomes these changes as we already have a programme of work underway to fully implement the requirements of the NPS over time.

Stock exclusion is a key part of water quality improvement and within our Region a considerable amount has already been done on a voluntary basis. The NPS has outlined further regulations around stock exclusion which will add to the regulatory and non-regulatory initiatives Horizons has had in place for a number of years.

Central Government proposes to start excluding dairy cattle and pigs from most lakes, river and streams from 1 July 2017, with compulsory stock exclusion to follow on a staggered basis through to 2030. This will extend to include beef cattle and deer, and depending on land gradient. Below you will find a table from page 26 and 27 of the Clean Water document which explains the stock exclusion process succinctly, please click the image, or here to read more. 

If you are interested in getting a head start in fencing off your waterways, you may be eligible for an environmental grant. If successful Horizons could cover up to 50% of the costs. To apply or enquire, get in touch with our freshwater team on free phone 0508 800 800.

In the meantime, you may have seen in the news that Horizons has recently been taking part in court proceedings around the One Plan. We are currently waiting on the judge’s decision on these hearings and until we are instructed to do otherwise we will continue to process all consents under our current One Plan structure. If you have any concerns related to the consent process, please do not hesitate to call our consents team on 0508 800 800. If you wish to seek industry advice about the court proceedings, we recommend you contact your local DairyNZ or Federated Farmers representative in the first instance.

MONITORING SEASON OUTCOMES

We’re now just over halfway through our monitoring season, having started in September last year. The first three months started on a positive trend with 87% of dairy effluent systems reaching compliance. This trend has continued, as a continued 87% of farmers reach compliance, with the dairy team having now checked 183 farms.

Horizons has continued with normal inspections this season, however we have also undertaken the first round of Land Use Consent – Nutrient Management Inspections. These inspections combine the dairy effluent system inspection and an assessment of the nutrient management resource consent requirements.

Please note, provided you comply with the requirements of your resource consent(s) you will only receive one physical on farm inspection to cover the monitoring aspects of all applicable consents.

It is also important to ensure your farm water abstraction is complying as per the requirements of the One Plan or your resource consent. This may include installing a flow meter if your consent requires you to install one, and having this verified by an accredited installer. Furthermore if you are abstracting over the permitted activity volumes of 50m3 /per day from a bore or 35m3/per day from surface water for example and do not have a resource consent already, please ensure you make this known to the monitoring officer on site and they can help you through the consenting process.

If you have any questions please contact our dairy team 0508 800 800 or on compliance.shared@horizons.govt.nz

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT

While it’s been a generally wet summer, much of our land is dry due to the wind. Effluent is a valuable resource and, when well managed, can grow more grass and reduce fertiliser costs.

Many of the basic issues that farmers run into are easily fixed or avoided. These include blockages in the irrigator, and knowing when to use or store the effluent. To ensure you’re all set check out our quick tips below as well as our more in-depth video.

• Keep your stone traps clean to ensure no blockages occur in the irrigator
• Change the nozzles on your irrigator annually (or when starting to look perished)
• Keep the irrigator greased, tyres pumped and on its fastest speed
• Only irrigate to land when the soils are not saturated
• Ensure that any solids generated are kept on a sealed base (ideally concrete)
• Keep your operating pond levels low to ensure that there is sufficient storage capacity during wet weather
• Storage options include sufficiently sized and lined, ponds, tanks or bladders