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It's about land management, not the number of cows.
Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis believes there will always be a place for dairy.
“I keep saying it: it’s not about too many cows, but how the land is managed,” he told Rural News.
Curtis, who is leaving the helm of Irrigation NZ in March, says he knows some “very, very good” dairy farmers with good environmental footprints and some “very, very bad” dairy farmers with horrible footprints – and the same with good and bad cropping farmers.
“So, let’s stop going on about the land use thing because it’s all about land management practices,” says.
“We’ve got a limits regime in place now and the limits regime basically says set the limits at a catchment level.”
Curtis has seen “a lot of fuss” over the dairy development of the Simons Pass Station in the Mackenzie.
“But, having seen that development, they’re retiring an awful lot of that land. And that land’s going to be well-managed; so instead of it being pine-infested, heiracium-infested, rabbit-infested — as much of it is at the moment — they’re going to set aside management funds to restore that properly.”
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IrrigationNZ submitted a briefing last month to the new Government this week on how water capture, storage, and efficient use can grow economic prosperity, support New Zealand's exports, and ensure long term regional resilience. Here's part of what Vanessa Winning, chief executive of IrrigationNZ, said:
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