The regulations are part of a national water strategy, so a regional and national picture of current water use can be developed. This will allow better planning and efficiency of water use.
Farmers need to register with a metering provider before the regulations take effect (20L/sec or more, 10 Nov 2012; 10-20L/sec, 10 Nov 2014).
Measurement systems suppliers Regen and Datacol say measurement “offers farmers benefits such as confidence, enhanced decision making and increased efficiency. Having more clarity about water usage efficiency enables you to make better use of it.”
These companies together offer systems for water metering, rainfall/weather data collection and effluent and irrigation scheduling. Once telemetry equipment is in place for one service, other sensors can be added to get more value in other parts of the business.
Bridgit Hawkins, chief executive Regen, and Bruce Franks, chief executive DataCol, and regional council staff recently met with farmers in Hawke’s Bay to discuss the regulations.
“We found farmers wanted to know more about the regulations, why everyone needed to do daily reporting and they were particularly interested in the benefits of telemetering, which can add value to a business,” says Hawkins.
“Telemetering means all the water usage data automatically comes back to one central place, making recording and reporting an easy task. Once you can see how much water you are using and when, you are able to manage this yourself. You may then add weather and soil moisture recordings and other tools such as Regen’s water irrigation scheduling. Not only do you comply, but you get a farm management tool to help improve efficiency.”
Often farmers were said to have concerns about data being stored securely. The water usage records are stored securely in a database and are only provided to the council as part of a farm’s required reporting.
