Early this month the co-operative announced plans to focus on 50 water catchments around the country working with councils, community groups and iwi to begin or expand existing initiatives to lift water quality.
Its sustainable dairying general manager Charlotte Rutherford said the decision to offer the plans to suppliers was to help them get ready for changes in regional catchment rules that were to be imposed relatively quickly.
“All suppliers’ farms are already mapped in a geographical information system (GIS) database on a digital platform that enables us to work with farmers onfarm, identifying any environmental hot spots and nutrient loss areas that will require attention,” she said.
The farm plan process was a relatively time-consuming one, taking about half a day onfarm and a further day to formulate in the office.
The cheapest offering for having plans done was about $3000, with plans typically costing $5000 to $7000 a farm.
“But you can also get plans that are more complex due to the nature of the farm.
“We have heard of one costing as much as $27,000 for a farm seeking consent to add on a drystock unit to the milking platform in Waikato.”
Fonterra had recently been criticised for its supportive submission on the Healthy Rivers plan in Waikato that enabled farmers to hold the line on nitrogen losses unless they were in the top 25% of emitters.
The high emitting farmers would be required to step down from that high level into the 75th and below level.
Critics included the group Farmers for Positive Change.
Chairman Rick Burke said the group viewed that as a “business as usual” approach for the majority of higher-emitting dairy farmers in the region.
His group was advocating for a sub-catchment management approach, tailoring each sub-catchment’s controls to its particular loss profile, whether nitrogen, phosphorous or sediment.
But Rutherford said the Healthy Rivers plan change was only the first stage in an 80-year process to get Waikato waterways swimmable and fishable.
“This first stage is very much about holding the line for many farmers as we gather more information on their losses.
“Meantime, the worst nitrogen losers have to step down quickly.
“All farmers also have to assess their farms for good management practices, identifying their contaminant losses and this is where the farm environment plans will be invaluable.”
Providing free plans for Fonterra suppliers was a means of helping identify where those environmental hot spots lay in this early stage of the Healthy Rivers plan, she said.
A sub-catchment approach appeared attractive but brought its own problems when determining what contaminants should get attention in each.
“If, for example, you ignore nitrogen in some catchments, it means if one catchment is allowed to rise then it has to be reduced even further in another catchment to reduce it overall in the main stem of the river.
“The problem could potentially become worse, not better.”
Meantime, Fonterra was liaising with groups around the country to determine what waterways would be included in the 50 catchments it intended to help lift water quality in.
“We do not intend to start something in a catchment that may already have a community or iwi group already doing something but we can offer help where required.”
The farm environment service would be available to Fonterra shareholders nationwide but she expected demand to be greatest in areas where regulation was coming, including Waikato, Southland and Canterbury.
