We have been trialling the online Riparian Planner tool with dairy farmers to create fencing and planting plans for waterways.
Farmers say to me they really appreciate the tool’s simplicity and accuracy and being able to work within a budget.
Tough times for farmers because of a low milk price, ongoing dairy farming regulations and building attention on the state of New Zealand’s waterways, combined with farmers wanting to do the right thing, have resulted in budget pressures and increased stress. A planning tool makes life easier.
Despite the stresses dairy farmers are under, I continue to see some great work by dairy farmers managing their waterways.
Fencing and planting around lakes, ponds, streams, rivers and drains to create riparian zones helps filter out sediment and nutrients before they enter waterways, prevent land erosion and increase habitat for native wildlife.
I met with one farmer who didn’t want to plant all his waterways this season – his short-term focus was a stream that required a riparian plan as part of a consent condition. I demonstrated how the tool could plan for separate waterways and how he could choose to design his plan around a one to five-year time frame.
The Waikato farmer was John Bluett, a tough critic who understands waterways are a complex issue. John has dairy farmed for 36 years and belongs to the dairy section of Federated Farmers and the Waikato Healthy Rivers Farmer Engagement Group. John decided to focus his plan on areas where planting would have maximum environmental return, where the water is accumulating before going into the stream, rather than planting everything.
The tool’s flexibility means plans can be designed in sections by separate waterways and focus on a particular area of each waterway. A riparian plan can be rolled out over a few years so by planning now and taking a long-term approach to riparian zones, farmers can budget in changing times.
The easy-to-use online Riparian Planning tool creates a unique-to-your-farm plan which outlines costs to help prioritise tasks around fencing, planting, maintenance and managing riparian zones into the future. Once completed, the plan includes costs, actions and a timeline, a plant list, a map and details on how much fencing to buy, where to plant, site preparation and animal and plant pest control.
John was impressed by the tool’s accuracy, the time saving and planning and how it gave the number of required plants, costs and exact measurements of areas.
Dairy farmers can use the tool to create their own riparian management plan or with a rural professional.
DairyNZ plans to further promote the Riparian Planner with rural professionals so they have another tool in their tool box to help farmers in these challenging times.
Using the planner
A riparian management plan takes less than an hour to complete, depending on its complexity and how the riparian zone will be managed.
The tool’s map feature makes planning easy – simply enter the farm supply number and zoom in on the property to mark existing waterways including lakes, ponds, streams, rivers and drains; select each waterway’s current state by width, fenced area and vegetation type and tick if it has weeds, exotics, natives or grass.
Finally, select if each waterway is fully or partially fenced and choose what to achieve over the next one to five years.
The tool’s flexibility means plans can be designed by budget, time frame and waterway.
You can save your plan, so as the riparian zone develops or anything changes onfarm, simply revisit the Riparian Planner to update any details for future planning.
Get your plan now at dairynz.co.nz/riparianplanner
The Riparian Planner was developed by DairyNZ and Landcare Research with input from regional councils and key environmental experts.
Key points
A riparian planting plan:
- is regionally tailored
- takes less than an hour to complete
- meets farmer obligations to have a riparian management plan by 2020
- can be regularly updated as onfarm situations change
- is accompanied by comprehensive riparian planting and planning information
- is perfect for farmers who are not sure where to start.
Matt Highway is DairyNZ senior developer, sustainability team.
