That’s why farmers and industry players have been involved in consensus-based discussions to define what good management includes.
“What one group thinks is good management may be quite different to what someone else thinks. They (the practices) have to be realistic,” he said.
DairyNZ senior scientist, Ina Pinxterhuis, is an industry technical lead for the matrix of good management (MGM) project and said defining good management hasn’t meant starting from scratch.
Many of the practices falling into that category are already included in industry standards through things like dairy company supply agreements and the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord.
The MGM nitrogen and phosphorus loss numbers listed in the table will be based on farms operating under good management practice so getting the definition of those practices right and making them clear is important.
It will not only enable the numbers to help drive good environmental outcomes, it’s also important so farmers can benchmark their own systems and make changes if necessary.
The project and reference groups have been charged with ensuring that in defining good management practices they keep in mind a set of principles that require:
* Practices will be agreed by consensus with farmers.
* Farms must be environmentally and financially sustainable.
* Practices must not adversely affect other sustainability criteria such as animal welfare.
* They’re context dependent in that they’re related to soil, climate and land use.
Soil moisture monitoring may be included for instance, but there could be flexibility in how it’s carried out onfarm, leaving the door open for new systems. In that way it may not necessarily mean each farm must have its own sensing technology and software. Groups of farms could in the future access climate and soils data provided by a third party.
Fencing off waterways, having nutrient budgets, and using industry guidelines to select crop paddocks for wintering were all likely good management practices.
“They’re not onerous and in some cases Overseer may be assuming those practices are being carried out as a matter of course anyway,” Pinxterhuis said.
“Examples are applying fertiliser according to the Code of Practice for Nutrient Management and application of effluent when there is no risk of run-off to waterways or drainage out of reach of plants.”
The summary of good management practices will be concise but will have a much bigger story behind them with links to supporting reference information, she said.
It’s currently in the final stages of review with farmers also providing feedback on the list of good management practices.
