Don't duplicate the good work done by farmers

Consultation on the Government's proposed changes, which importantly focus on a more realistic approach to stock exclusion on farms, has begun and runs through until the beginning of September.

According to DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Dr David Burger, the industry good organisation wants to see the framework acknowledge work already done by farmers and ensure it doesn't add time pressures on farm or complications within regional plans.

"Dairy farmers are committed to improving water quality and have a lot of work already underway on farms, including 3,400 existing Farm Environment Plans. But doubling up on work and compounding that with short timeframes will put too much pressure on farmers. Recognising existing planning is crucial because farmers are already overwhelmed with too many regulations, coming in too hard and fast," he says.

Burger says the pace and scale of new regulations is adding significant pressure on-farm. He says in a DairyNZ survey, 62% of farmers said they or someone on their farm had experienced a mental health issue in the past 12 months, with the main cause identified as the changing regulations.

“DairyNZ will make a strong submission on behalf of dairy farmers to ensure fair and achievable rules. For dairy farmers who already have a Farm Environment Plan that includes a strong focus on freshwater, it should be about updating it rather than rewriting. We also want the freshwater farm plans to fit logically with regional plan regulations, to prevent re-work by farmers and dairy companies,” he says.

Burger says dairy farmers are committed to playing their part, alongside all New Zealanders, to reduce their environmental footprint and says farmers have been taking a wide range of on-farm actions for more than 20 years nationwide to improve water quality. He adds that dairy companies have a key role in helping farmers develop and update their plans.

“While the consultation is underway, DairyNZ recommends farmers continue working with their dairy companies to develop and update their plans,” he says.