Friday, March 29, 2024

Spending focus on future needs

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DairyNZ’s environmental work on two of 10 objectives of the Dairy Industry Strategy – environmental stewardship and national prosperity – will cost $11.2 million this financial year, a substantial percentage increase on previous investment in this area.
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Under environmental stewardship, which accounts for 5% of DairyNZ’s spending overall, its $3.3m of levy payments will help ensure decisions about setting and implementing environmental limits on dairy farming are wise and implementable in Northland, Otago, Canterbury, Waikato, Southland, Hawke’s Bay and Bay of Plenty. This involves 15 water quality projects.

Other key projects in this area are developing Sustainable Milk Plans in the Upper Waikato and Waipa catchments. Land management guides for Northland, Bay of Plenty and one South Island region will be completed and farmer workshops will be held on riparian planting and erosion control.

Under the national prosperity objective, $7.9m is being spent funding economic analyses to support the implementation of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

In this financial year DairyNZ’s focus will be on finishing an economic model for Waikato to assess policy options for the new regional land and water plan. A similar project has been started in Southland.

DairyNZ believes maintaining healthy waterways is beneficial for the dairy sector, its international reputation and for all New Zealanders. Under the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord milk processors have signed up to collect and model nitrogen loss and nitrogen conversion efficiency from all dairy farms, so farmers will need to provide this information and benchmarks to their suppliers.

A number of hotspots for nitrogen losses are listed on DairyNZ’s website, such as winter crops, fertiliser application and effluent disposal, with mitigation information.

To reduce leaching with winter cropping farmers are urged to use crop calculators to gauge fertiliser needs and precision application to make sure amounts and timing are correct. Winter fallow leaching can be reduced by using cover crops and mineral nitrogen leaching through the use of minimal tillage.

Direct leaching from fertiliser application can be reduced by not applying in winter or to water-logged soils, using soil testing to ensure other nutrients aren’t limiting, and optimising both response rate and pasture utilisation.

Effluent irrigation nitrogen losses can be minimised by ensuring application rates are suitable for the farm’s soil type, having sufficient storage to not have to irrigate during wet periods and making sure effluent blocks can make efficient use of the nutrients. Storage ponds and tanks need to be lined to prevent leaching and infrastructure maintained regularly.

Off-paddock facilities for stock can capture the nitrogen from dung and urine with the biggest benefit in autumn before winter rain.

Wintering stock off-farm can also help but thorough investigation is needed to ensure this solves the problem and farm systems remain profitable.

DairyNZ is completing case studies to quantify the costs and benefits of building wintering facilities for cows to help farmers make decisions about which farming system is best for them.

The economics work provides guidance and support for the economic evaluation of potential policy options for projects concerned with farming with water quality limits. Some of those included are at Waituna, Southland, Selwyn-Te Waihora, Canterbury, Hinds, South Canterbury, Upper Waitaki and Hauraki, Waikato.

In the research and development area, which makes up 20% of DairyNZ’s spending, a further $18m is focused on reducing dairying’s environmental footprint. The aim here is to meet the future needs of dairy farmers by creating profitable options for farming within nutrient and environmental limits.

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