Farm inspections will be need-based

Otago dairy farmers are facing a new environmental risk assessment regime.

The Otago Regional Council will no longer automatically inspect all dairy farms annually. Instead, farms will be visited as deemed necessary.

The change coincides with the implementation of the region's new water quality rules.

''Every farm will be assessed on their environmental risk and decisions made about how often they need to be inspected based on that risk,'' environmental monitoring and operations director Jeff Donaldson said.

The decisions would be based on criteria including:

1. whether the dairy farm is in a degraded river catchment;

2. whether the dairy farm has adopted best infrastructure management for its area; and

3. whether there are drainage risks (e.g. tiles or mole drains leading to waterways) on the property.

If farmers improved their infrastructure to reduce environmental risks, inspections would be less frequent, Mr Donaldson said.

''When water quality also improves in degraded catchments, inspection frequency will also reduce further.

''Our objectives are to have every farm compliant with the new water quality rules, to incentivise farmers to adopt best practice in their land management, and to ensure water quality improves and meets the schedule 15 and 16 standards in the Otago Water Plan,'' he said.

From September last year to April this year, 435 dairy sheds were operating in Otago. Of these, 407 (93.5%) complied with permitted activity rules.

The remaining 28 (6.5%) had breached the rules, potentially harming the environment. Ten cases were considered serious, leading to the council initiating eight prosecutions and issuing four infringement notices.

Mr Donaldson said those results were an improvement on 2012-13, when 378 of the 413 dairy farms (91.5%) complied with the rules and 35 (8.5%) breached them. Sixteen were serious, with five prosecutions initiated and 12 infringement notices issued.

The better compliance reflected the fact that a number of farmers had significantly upgraded their effluent management, he said. Storage was improved, gatorbuddies (electronic sensors that take action if an irrigator fails) were installed, and irrigation systems refined.

''While this improvement is pleasing, we would like to see the percentage of compliant farms increase even further as the new water quality rules take effect,'' Mr Donaldson said.

- by Sally Brooker 

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