Farmers cheer Canty’s first Effluent Expo

"It's good; a good learning curve and good to have it all under one roof," Geoff Donald, Leeston, told Dairy News.

He was there looking at storage options for his 300ha, 800-cow unit with his farm worker Chris Tukaki.

"It's given me a few ideas about which way we should go."

Mid Canterbury farmers Greg and Rachel Roadley were also looking at storage.

"One farm needs a bit of an upgrade. It's got three days' storage so it's compliant, but only just," said Greg.

Rachel Roadley echoed Donald's comment about the convenience of the event, as did non-dairy farmer Mike Chaffey.

"Having everything under one roof makes it easy. To do all this on my own would take me the best part of a week by the time I'd travelled to all the different firms."

As a sheep, crop and dairy grazier, he's considering conversion of his farm at Te Parita, on the north bank of the Rakaia.

He also found it a good opportunity to buttonhole dairy farmers about what's working, or not, with their effluent systems.

Westland field officer Rob Pieper had travelled over Arthur's Pass with four suppliers to see what was on show.

"It's been a really good event to bring farmers to, to keep them in touch with the latest developments and also just to put some dollars to the various options, and learn a bit more about the detail."

Pond lining was a particular focus.

"The ball-park figure seems to be about $10 per cubic metre of storage. That's a lot more expensive than just digging holes but as an industry we need to maintain certain standards."

While lining ponds isn't necessarily a consent requirement on the West Coast, Westland is keen to ensure its suppliers' effluent management is best practice for the soil and climate they operate in, he adds.

"If we're going to achieve a premium payout we've got to earn that. We've got ISO 14001 right across the factory. It would be really good if we could extend that down to the farm as well."

Synlait's Lucy Bowker, one of the event organisers, echoed that 'keeping ahead of compliance' theme.

"If you do the minimum to meet current regulations you're probably not future proofing your business."

Under Canterbury's Natural Resources Regional Plan a minimum of three days' storage for effluent and storm water is required but many at the event, such as the Roadleys, and Donal, were looking at more.

"We're looking at putting in 10 days' storage," said Donald.