Thursday, 23 July 2015 06:05

Clear commitment

Written by Rural News Group

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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.

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