increase font size
Prof Chris Anderson.
Compliance means not only meeting the requirements of the regulator, but also the expectations of society.
This was a key theme of the annual Fertiliser and Lime Research Centre workshop at Massey University, Palmerston North, last week.
About 250 attendees representing CRIs, universities, central and local government and consultants attended the 32nd, three-day workshop. Speakers came from Ireland, Denmark and Australia.
The centre’s acting director, Professor Chris Anderson, says the workshop has long looked at nutrients and their management which, with compliance, is now critical.
He says compliance must be seen as farmers meeting the requirements of a regulator and also meeting society’s expectations.
“We are seeing more and more discussion about water quality. People want to know that their water is safe to swim in and they are concerned about food quality,” he told Rural News.
“So the FLRC workshop is a platform to look at the science and the policy – track how we are going, look at the current trends and [look at] finding a pathway forward.”
Anderson says agriculture and horticulture are crucial to NZ’s economy, but their impact on the environment is scrutinised more than ever before. Primary producers are increasingly challenged to comply with social expectations for “healthy food, healthy environment”.
“Regional councils are working on regulations guided by science, which target the balance between production and environmental protection,” he says.
Anderson believes Massey University is making a “significant contribution” to finding quality science solutions to the problems. They are looking at making farm systems more efficient with feed and getting the most from nutrient inputs.
“Good science is what Massey is strong in.”
Massey is making a point of engaging with farmers in some science work because farmers have the task of implementing policy.
“Farmers are doing a good job and we should celebrate this.”
They want to do a good job because they are concerned about having a clean environment. This underpins their goal of healthy food and healthy animals.
“So farmers are listening, watching and having input and providing feedback to us to make sure we are on the right track,” he says.
For Tararua District dairy farmer Lisa Lyons, ongoing professional development has always gone hand-in-hand with life on the farm, but a major health challenge prompted her to take her study journey even further.
How to save soil, living with kikuyu grass and retaining nutrients on farm.
The science underpinning New Zealand's dairy, beef and sheep grazing systems was largely established from the 1950s onward, but new analysis shows that the climate those systems were built for has shifted significantly.
Massey University says its stand at the Fieldays will showcase regenerative science and “circular bioeconomy innovation supporting more sustainable and resilient farming systems”.
New research suggests sheep and beef farmers could improve both profitability and emissions efficiency by increasing lamb weaning weights, with only marginal changes in total greenhouse gas emissions.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
OPINION: Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mark Warren recently told the Hawke's Bay Times it's time for a conversation about allowing…
OPINION: A nation that relies as heavily as NZ does on functional global shipping lanes will have to do its…
