Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council
Dairy effluent requires careful management
When managed well, dairy effluent is a valuable resource that can increase the productivity of your pasture and reduce your fertiliser costs.
Good effluent management means having a well-designed system with proper processes to ensure the right amount of effluent gets applied to pasture at the right time. Untreated effluent entering surface water bodies or groundwater can harm human health and water quality. It is also a breach of environmental regulations.
“Understanding and adhering to your consent conditions, along with making sound effluent management decisions, will help ensure nutrients and bacteria are not transmitted to surface and groundwater supplies,” Team Leader Central Water and Land Marcelo Wibmer says.
“We’re here to help support you to stay compliant, as this not only prevents negative environmental impacts, but it also ensures you get the most benefit out of the nutrients from your farming operation.”
Top tips for staying compliant
You must comply with local rules and the conditions of your consent and exercise Good Management Practice (GMP) to avoid environmental impacts and get the most value from the nutrients.
Some of our top tips are:
- Check soil moisture levels regularly: Applying effluent to saturated soils can result in ponding and run-off so it’s important to understand soil water deficit. Manage your effluent application rates based on seasonal conditions, reducing the rate when soil moisture is elevated.
- Choose application times wisely: Effluent is best applied to actively growing pastures (ideally straight after post-grazing) at a rate that can infiltrate the soil without ponding or causing run-off, avoids draining below plant roots and is spread evenly. Tools such as the DairyNZ Farm Dairy Effluent Spreading Calculator and Depth Testing Calculator are available to help manage the application of effluent nutrients more precisely and ensure your effluent is evenly distributed.
- Check soil moisture levels regularly: Applying effluent to saturated soils can result in ponding and run-off so it’s important to understand soil water deficit. Manage your effluent application rates based on seasonal conditions, reducing the rate when soil moisture is elevated.
- Have sufficient available storage: It’s good practice to ensure you have enough storage to get you through the wet times and help you avoid application on saturated soils. It is also crucial to have suitably sized storage for your farm. Check out Dairy NZ’s resources on storage for more information.
- Monitor your effluent application: This will help identify issues promptly – for example leaking hoses or blocked nozzles. Consider fail-safe effluent management systems that include features such as auto-shutoff in the case of a fault.
- Keep good records: As part of your FEP and consent obligations you will need to keep records of all effluent applications, including application depths/volume applied and any equipment repairs undertaken. Regular maintenance of your irrigation application equipment is vital for optimal performance.
- Educate your staff: Training in operation and management helps ensure GMP is followed, and any issues are flagged early.
On-farm compliance
If you have a resource consent to discharge animal effluent, you will have two sets of compliance measures you are responsible for meeting – the conditions of your resource consent, and your Farm Environment Plan (FEP) objectives and targets relating to effluent management.
Our Resource Management Officers (RMOs) carry out monitoring inspections on farms to assess consent and rule compliance for many farming activities including effluent storage and discharge.
An independent FEP auditor will visit your farm to verify your farming practices against industry-agreed GMP objectives, check your records and paperwork to assess their confidence that your farm is achieving the objectives and targets set out in your FEP appendix.
The possible consequences of non-compliance are:
- A notice of non-compliance
- A letter of formal warning
- Cost recovery
- Requesting an application for a retrospective resource consent
- An abatement notice
- An infringement notice
- An enforcement order from the Environment Court
- Alternative Environmental Justice (AEJ)
- Prosecution.
If you have any questions about effluent management contact our advisory team on 0800 324 636 or email ecinfo@ecan.govt.nz and they can put you in touch with your local land management advisor.
Environment Canterbury © 2024
Retrieved: 11:07am, Tue 22 Oct 2024
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