Climate change tough issue for dairying

Luke Templeton.

Aparima sharemilker Luke Templeton says while progress has been made on water quality issues on farms, addressing climate change issues remains a future challenge for the farming sector.

Mr Templeton joined nearly 100 dairy farming leaders at the annual DairyNZ Dairy Environment Leaders Forum last week for three days of discussing sustainable farming and goals for the future.

''There was a jam-packed agenda and it was encouraging to see that there is a lot happening in this space,'' he said.

''It's fairly well accepted we have started to make progress in terms of water quality associated with farming activities but it was clearly spelled out at the conference the challenge of addressing greenhouse gas emissions remains to be tackled.''

The good news was that there had been steady progress over the past 10 years with annual 1% reductions in on-farm emissions without too much effort being made, Mr Templeton said.

''In our favour is that we at least now have a track record of improvement in terms of addressing environmental concerns and it is up to the dairy sector to build on that,'' he said ''Scientists at the conference have laid out a range of possible approaches and we now have to explore the practicality of these.''

Dairy Environment Leaders programme chairwoman Tracy Brown said sustainable dairying was a focus for the dairy sector, as farmers continued to build on work they had already done to look after the environment.

''Farmers are doing a lot of good work on their farms and in their communities to build great environments and establish sustainable businesses for the long-term. The forum is a key part of continuing that journey.''

The farmer-led Dairy Environment Leaders Forum is in its sixth year in its current format and this year hosts around 50 new dairy farmers, expanding the programme's dairy farmer base to 300 nationwide.

Attendees at the forum also discussed the international market opportunities and what might be the right thing to do for food. Discussions also centred on what the dairy sector is doing to meet environmental commitments and how science can help the implementation of new dairy strategies.

''The ultimate goal is that farmers come away from the forum inspired and motivated to help accelerate change and ensure dairy continues its journey to securing a sustainable future,'' Mr Brown said.