Sustainable development: Dairy industry tackles waste removal

By KEVIN TAYLOR

One dairy cow produces as much waste daily as 14 people - and the country's herd now totals more than 3.7 million beasts.

The impact of all that waste on New Zealand's waterways has been the target of sustained pressure from environmental groups since last year.

Dairy giant Fonterra, and central and local government are in the throes of finalising an action plan to address what has become known as "dirty dairying".

But the environmental lobby is impatient and wants deadlines and commitments to act - now.

Fish and Game New Zealand says dairy farms are destroying waterways through sediment and nutrient runoff, and cows physically smashing stream banks.

In April the organisation released a report it commissioned from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) damning agriculture's impact on waterways, and citing dairy farming as the major problem.

The report says the vast majority of scientific studies show New Zealand agriculture has detrimental impacts on water quality.

These studies show high levels of sediments, nutrients and bacteria are generally found in waterways in agricultural areas, particularly where farming was intensive. Streams in dairy farming areas in particular are in poor state.

Fish and Game director Bryce Johnson says he wants to know one thing - what the industry is going to do about it and by when.

Meanwhile, the national dairy herd is only set to grow still further on the back of the growth of the last few years.

MAF figures show the 2001-02 dairy season opened with an estimated 3.76 million cows, up 6 per cent on the previous season.

The number is expected to rise again to about 4.15 million head by the 2006-07 season, up nearly 10 per cent on 2001-02.

Action on water quality is looming. Aware of the attitude of demanding - and lucrative - dairy markets like North America and Europe, Fonterra plans to finalise an action plan by the end of the year focused on water quality issues.

The dairy giant is working with the Ministry for the Environment, regional councils and MAF on the plan.

Fonterra has also produced Market Focused, voluntary environmental quality and animal welfare guidelines for its dairy farmers.

It is consulting suppliers - who are also its shareholders - on another plan to assess farm environmental and animal welfare performance starting from next June.

Shane Lodge, Fonterra manager of field and technical services, expects farmers will agree to the assessments, but they were still consulting and he says he cannot release further details.

He says the guidelines are voluntary and since late last year they have been presented to dairy farmers throughout the country. More workshops are planned.

"It allows farmers to identify issues on his farm and develop strategies to minimise the risk and to get rid of the problems," he says.

Lodge, who makes a presentation at a workshop today at the Sustainable Business Conference in Auckland, says Fonterra acknowledges the water quality issue and is taking action.

Asked if the action plan being concocted will be compulsory, he says that will depend on what it finally contains but elements may be compulsory.

In June Lodge told a dairy farmers meeting the "clean green image" was worth between $18,000 and $49,000 a year to each farmer.

The industry faced access restrictions in some of the most lucrative markets unless it continued improving in areas like environmental sustainability and animal welfare.

Ecologic Foundation executive director Guy Salmon welcomes the commitment of Fonterra management, led by chief executive Craig Norgate, to addressing the problem.

While he says he does not use the term "dirty dairying", he thinks it has been useful in galvanising people into action.

But he says there is still much to be done - like tens of thousands of kilometres of fencing of waterways around the country.

There is also not yet agreement from the dairy industry on some of the more difficult issues - like a prohibition on dairying in some areas, such as Lake Taupo. Streams have already been fenced but nutrient runoff remains a problem.

He says dairy farming will have to be banned from the catchment, a move unlikely to make farmers warm to the environmental lobby's cause.

Salmon says farmers and regional councils are in fact the big problems in addressing water quality problems, yet it is crucial they are on side.

He says Fonterra's plans for on-farm assessment of environmental and animal welfare issues will hit a stumbling block because it will depend on regional councils defining the more detailed requirements.

He claims regional councils are not really prepared to grapple with this as they have been strongly influenced by Federated Farmers, which has been saying farmers do not want councils telling them how to manage their farms.

Yet Salmon says two-thirds of dairy farms in New Zealand have waterways running through their properties, and two-thirds of those farms have not fenced off the streams.

"We are not just talking about a minority 10 per cent of dairy farmers here. This is a fairly large majority.

"The next few months are going to be crucial really, as we go around these farmer meetings and consultations."

The ongoing war of words has left Federated Farmers touchy.

Mention dirty dairying and you get a dark response from Catherine Petrey, the body's executive director of policy.

"I could just say 'dirty Auckland' - and so what? The reality is it sounds good, but it's no more or less valid than any other activity we do. I drive a dirty car."

She rejects pollution claims being made by environmental groups and questions why the New Zealand Herald is writing an article based on a "beat up".

"We would not accept that across the board there is a major pollution problem.

"The statements you are making are very general, as if it's all dairying and only dairying. The reality is that all farming activity - in fact all activity - impacts, and it's a matter of degree."

Petrey says new investment in dairy farms would not have occurred if the industry had not been sustainable.

Federated Farmers opposes fencing every waterway running through the country's dairy farms because of cost, and the fact that it may supply no environmental benefit.

"Why would the country want one of their very large income earners to apply a whole lot of cost for no environmental benefits? Because there is a risk that would be the case," Petrey asks.

She says if Fonterra's suppliers agree with the new action plan, Federated Farmers will "be part of that process and be happy to sign off on something the suppliers have worked through".

Federated Farmers has supported the voluntary scheme, and the organisation had been heavily involved in its development.

Southland-based Federated Farmers policy analyst Fiona Young says the environmental lobby has been extremely effective in targeting the media with its key messages.

"It has been very difficult with some of the media attention on the dairying issue and the way it's been represented. There's been a dearth of factual information," she says.

An example is the Niwa report, which she says was a review of the literature to show situations where adverse effects had occurred.

There was no balance, she claims, and in Southland at least, farmers have done plenty to address the problem. Dairy farming has grown rapidly in the region. Cow numbers rose 40 per cent between 1994 and 1999 and there are now more than 450 suppliers producing 620 million litres of milk annually.

"Farmers need to be and are concerned about sustainability," Young says. "If they are not, they are not going to get much money out of their farms in the long term."

Many farmers also farmed because they enjoy the land and value their environment.

For all the criticism by the environmental lobby, however, the big players appear to be coming on board. Fish and Game's action plan for the industry includes:

* Cows being fenced out of waterways, wetlands and lakes, with fences placed far enough back for an effective riparian vegetation buffer zone to grow.

* All farm raceways to have culverts or bridges at places where cows cross.

* Farms to follow a professional "nutrient budget" in applying fertiliser to minimise the risk of excess nutrients going into waterways or leaching to groundwater.

It is a similar menu to that outlined in May by Fonterra, MAF, the Ministry for the Environment and regional councils for their yet-to-be-finalised action plan.

There is also other research being done on how dairy farming can become more environmentally sustainable.

One of the authors of the Niwa report for Fish and Game, Dr Rupert Craggs, suggests biogas from the decomposition of animal waste can be used to reduce farmers' energy costs, and has the added advantage of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

When animal waste decomposes in the absence of oxygen it produces a mixture of about 70 per cent methane and 30 per cent carbon dioxide. This biogas has an energy content similar to natural gas and can be used to generate electricity.

He believes annual energy savings should be at least US$2000 for a 300-cow dairy farm, and US$7000 for a 1000-cow farm. He says the system is technically feasible, but is not yet commercially available.

Currently, dairy farms generally capture cow excretions from the cowsheds into ponds or tanks for later disposal. Craggs is advocating that the ponded effluent is used to generate electricity.

But he admits the cowshed systems capture only about 10 per cent of cow waste - the rest is still dropped in the paddocks.

Environment Waikato's group manager of resource information, Tony Petch, says agriculture is widely recognised as having an impact on water quality.

"I think that is recognised by the fact that Fonterra is involved in this action plan, the Ministry for the Environment is, and so are the regional councils."

Petch says the Waikato regional council has for years recognised the impact on waterways of dairying, and has done things like shifted dairy shed effluent discharge from streams to land.

But Johnson argues more action is overdue. He says dairy farms are turning up anywhere land is cheap.

The South Island's cow population is producing as much sewage as 10 million people - all plopping untreated on to land and in waterways.

Johnson points out a 1993 report cited the damage dairying was doing to the environment and another followed in 1997. "There has now been three big reports in the last decade. We are saying the industry needs to get out of denial."

But Petch says that in the case of Waikato dairy farmers at least, action is already happening.

They are recognising the commercial benefits and know it is the right thing to do anyway.

"I think we are all agreed on what has to be done. Most of the debate is about how fast it is done."