Environment Canterbury has released the Canterbury region dairy report for the 2008/09 season.  The report covers Environment Canterbury’s regulation and enforcement activities related to dairy shed effluent and the progress in meeting community outcomes.

Cr Bronwen Murray, Chair of the Regulatory Overview Committee, says there has been a significant increase in the number of dairy farms in Canterbury over the past year.

A total of 851 properties were monitored by Environment Canterbury, up 23 per cent from 696 monitored in the previous season.

New dairy conversions are required to produce an effluent management plan, and are encouraged to adopt approved industry practices, including an adequate system for effluent storage.

Compliance results were similar to previous years.  Of the 851 farms monitored 43.2 per cent were fully compliant compared with 45.8 per cent in the previous year.  Each consent has a number of conditions, and there was 88.2 per cent full compliance with conditions, compared to 89.5 per cent last year.

The number of farms with significant or major levels of non-compliance was 19.3 per cent, compared with 20.0 per cent in the previous season.

In the latest year 60 per cent of farmers were applying nitrogen at a rate below 100 kg per hectare per year, compared with fewer than 50 per cent in the 2005/2006 year. 

 Read the Canterbury Region Dairy Report for the 2008/09 season (pdf 535 kB)