Thursday, 23 July 2015 06:05

Clear commitment

Written by 
Tim Mackle. Tim Mackle.

This is just the start of our industry trying to understand and quantify how much farmers are investing in environmental actions. 

We are also collating actions from our Sustainable Milk Plan projects to keep a record of what farmers are doing around the country and the difference their investments are making. 

This is the first time we’ve done this kind of survey and it gives us a broad brush indication of what is being done on the ground, based on what the more than 500 farmers who responded have told us.”

“The survey attracted a particularly good response rate from Marlborough-Canterbury dairy farmers of 7.7%. That region’s farmers had spent an average of over $170,000 per farm in in the past five years. Otago-Southland dairy farmers were not far behind with 6.5% responding, and having spent on average over $150,000 per farm.”

“It’s clear there is a significant commitment from New Zealand dairy farmers to farming responsibly and investing in actions that make a difference to managing their farms’ environmental impact.”

• Tim Mackle is chief executive of DairyNZ.

More like this

Levy Scrutiny

OPINION: Mike Chapman, former chief executive of levy-funded HortNZ, has thrown out a challenge to farmers and growers to put their levy-funded industry organisations under the same scrutiny as fertiliser, electricity, labour and freight.

Sharemilkers Credit DairyBase Tool for Staffing Decisions

Signing up to a benchmarking tool is not about competition, but about improving collectively, says Ximena Puig and Alvaro Luzardo who are 50-50 sharemilkers at a 164-hectare (effective) dairy farm in Eketāhuna in the Lower North Island.

Featured

Carrfields Marks 50 Years as Rural Health Programme Grows

Celebrating 50 years in the rural landscape of Central Canterbury and beyond, Ashburton-based Carrfields, has been the exemplar for all aspects of modern agriculture via its extensive range of services including supply, growing, agronomic advice and marketing.

National

Machinery & Products

Suzuki Launches Jimny Horizon

Suzuki New Zealand has announced the arrival of the latest version of its Jimny SUV, the Horizon special edition, a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Domestic Focus

OPINION: After hogging the media limelight for telling a NZ Chinese MP to "go back home", Winston Peters has decided…

A No-Brainer

OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter