The 2013-14 season review found 792 farms, or 72%, fully complied with consent conditions while 205 had minor indiscretions.
Environment Canterbury’s director of resource management Kim Drummond said not one prosecution was taken against dairy farmers in the region over the period compared with an average of three or four each year for the past few seasons.
The regional council issued seven abatement and 13 infringement notices, a similar rate to previous seasons.
Drummond said while overall compliance was similar to last year the numbers reflected a significant improvement on 2008-09 when only 43% of farms were fully compliant.
Following that season the Canterbury Dairy Effluent Group was set up as a council-dairy industry partnership that included DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Synlait, Westland Milk Products, South Island Dairying Development Centre, PrimaryITO, and more recently Oceania Dairy.
DairyNZ regional policy manager James Ryan said the concerted efforts across in the industry and significant investment by farmers onfarm were now starting to pay dividends.
Added to the pan-industry approach were initiatives such as the farm dairy effluent design code of practice which had enabled a better dialogue with the council and meant farmers were getting more consistent advice from a variety of sources.
Ryan said a similar shift was happening across the country.
Farmers had spent hundreds of millions of dollars in increasing storage and effluent infrastructure to make best use of the nutrient value and protect the environment.
Federated Farmers Mid-Canterbury dairy section chairperson Jessie Chan-Dorman said the combined approach was proving successful. Farmers had stepped up and were being proactive in their approach to effluent management.
She urged them to do the same when it came to the current process of setting zone-specific environmental requirements as part of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy.
Federated Farmers was actively engaged across the zones but she encouraged farmers to get along to as many meetings and workshops as they could in their zones to ask the hard questions, be part of the discussion, and ensure outcomes were workable.
Most of the rules and requirements coming out of the zone committee process would have greater impact on farmers than other interest groups.
“It’s not about being antagonistic, it’s about being involved and adding to the rural voice around the table.
“We don’t deny we have to do something. We just have to make sure whatever it is it’s do-able,” she said.
