Between the feed pad and the herd home, Mr Maughan's operation captures most of his herd's waste for application to the land. It enables him to prevent some nitrate leaching through the ground - much of that is usually from urine spots.
But the herd home and feed pad are needed mainly to keep cows off the ground when it is wet. The farm's soil is Marton clay, which pugs and compacts badly when heavy animals stand on it in wet weather.
It's an intensive operation and Mr Maughan has two staff, Bevan Johnson and Alex Meads. He is an early adopter of new ideas, and is standing for the board of DairyNZ.
He's had the farm for 14 years, doubled its size and herd and spent a lot. Now it is more or less the way he wants it.
The waterways were fenced off before that was required, and he and a friend spent four days in Southland researching herd homes before he decided what type to build.
His structure cost $300,000 and was finished six years ago.
It's a large plastic tunnel with open sides and ends and a slatted concrete floor. Waste drops through into a bunker and is cleaned out as necessary. Urine drains into a sump.
One end has straw on the ground for calving cows.
The open sides let wind through, and shade cloth can be used to protect from bright sun. The plastic roof heats up the interior, which evaporates moisture and kills any bugs.
It doesn't look like a warm place, but Mr Maughan said it is.
"On a cold night when you get 100 cows lying down and chewing their cuds it's as warm as toast."
The cows seemed to appreciate being warm and dry.
"They're usually waiting on the feed pad in the morning to be milked. One morning I arrived here, after a wet, cold, miserable night, and looked out on the feed pad. There were none there but there were 400 crammed into the herd home keeping nice and warm."
The cows spend at least four hours a day grazing on rye grass, clover, plantain and chicory. If the soil is wet they spend the rest of the time in the herd home or on the feed pad.
Their supplementary feed is a brown fibrous mix of palm kernel extract and maize silage, with a bit of grain and molasses.
They're only fed on the pad or from the herd home.
"It can save a lot of wastage of feed, with it not getting pushed into the ground. It also allows you to monitor their appetites, and cut back if they're not eating it all," Mr Maughan said.
The effect of the feed pad and herd home is that much of the waste is concentrated in a small area near the milking shed and effluent pond. When the Chronicle came to call it was being moved around.
Fluid from the sump was pumped out into the effluent pond, while the drained solids were loaded into a hopper and towed out on to pasture to be applied as fertiliser.
The smell was powerful, but Mr Maughan said he didn't notice it any more.
Manuring the pasture can only be done when soil moisture deficit is 25mm or more and the soil is warm enough. There were no worries about that last week - Mr Maughan's online weather and soil tool, ReGen Effluent, told him it would take 29mm of rain to saturate the soil that day.
"It's been pretty dry this year. We're crying out for rain," he said.
The farm's effluent pond system was also expensive - $140,000 - and was required by Horizons Regional Council. He said it helped him manage the farm, "especially at this time of year, when you're busy and don't have to worry about shifting irrigators and what's going in the water." The pond holds 4,000,000 litres of dairy shed waste - 90 days' worth.
The effluent is used to irrigate and fertilise the farm. Since getting that system running, the only solid fertiliser Mr Maughan has bought is urea and sulphate of ammonia, "a quick fix for grass growth". Using the effluent saves him $50,000 to $60,000 a year in fertiliser. Soil is tested every two years, and the effluent is maintaining fertility.
The pond is big enough to cater for a herd of 500, the number of cows Mr Maughan has consent for.
That extra storage may be needed if the farm gets bigger.
He doesn't do any irrigation, except with the effluent, and stock water is provided by a bore.
Enlarging the milking shed to the current 30 a side has been another expense, and an underpass under SH1 cost $120,000.
