The farmer-led project “Seeing, understanding, believing”, is funded by the Our Land and Water Science (OLAW) Challenge and involves farmers in the Nguturoa catchment near Linton, who have been studying stream health, greenhouse gas and farm management issues.
Part of the project aims to provide practical methods for farmers to measure and evaluate water quality indicators associated with their own farms, with results used for strategic planning on their own properties as well as catchment group activities.
The monitoring is done using NIWA’s Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit (SHMAK).
The kits provide a way to assess whether land-use practices are affecting waterways, and also allows stream health to be tracked over time, so farmers can assess whether it is getting better, worse or staying the same.
As part of the project, NIWA scientists have been working with landowners to carry out monthly water quality tests for nutrients, sediment and pathogen indicators in streams and waterways running through their properties.
One of the project leaders, KapAg managing director Terry Parminter says often industry groups, along with central and local government organisations, simply tell farmers what to do without providing them with ways to achieve desired outcomes.
Parminter says this project is different because it’s focused not only on what the outcomes might be, but also provides farmers with information on how to achieve them.
He says if farmers can see for themselves how their farms affect their catchment they are more likely to take steps to change that.
The water testing kits are not aimed at replacing more formal methods of stream health monitoring, they are instead an additional tool to empower farmers and communities to play their own role.
Samples gathered can also be sent for laboratory testing, which enables the information to be included in cross-catchment NIWA data.
The SHMAK equipment can be ordered through the NIWA website. Prices begin at $120 for the starter kit. Standard kits range from $600 to $695 depending on whether water is fairly cloudy or clear, through to SHMAK-plus, which includes everything in the standard kit, as well as kits for E.coli bacteria, dissolved nitrate and phosphate.
Parminter says farmers can pool their resources within catchments to share ownership of the kits.
The field day is on April 8, from 10.30am to 2.30pm at 267 Millricks Line, Linton.
