Tasman’s farms discharging of dairy shed effluent were overwhelmingly compliant over the 2022/2023 milking season, a Tasman District Council committee has heard.
Presenting to the environment and regulatory committee, team leader monitoring and enforcement Carl Cheeseman said compliance was “very high”, and it was worth noting that there was no moderate or significant non-compliance this year, which was “really pleasing”.
The non-compliance that was found was minor and resolved fairly quickly, he said.
Councillor Mike Kininmonth said dairy farming got a “bad rap”.
This figure shows compliance trends over the life of the monitoring programme.
Cheeseman’s report stated that dairy effluent disposal carried risk to freshwater quality, ecosystem health and receiving environments.
Every year the council assesses the disposal of treated dairy effluent to land or water through a compliance monitoring programme.
The report said Tasman was “relatively small” as a dairy farming region, making up just 1% of the national herd on less than 1% of the total land area.
Since the start of the monitoring regime in 2005, there has been a steady decline in active farms, and in cow numbers, much of which was due to amalgamation as smaller farms became part of bigger entities, particularly in the first 10 years.
Over the latter years, dairy farm numbers have continued to decline, which was “mainly due to smaller farms ceasing supply and wider land use change away from dairying to dairy support, beef, and in some areas hop gardens.”
Of the 116 active dairy farms inspected over the 2022/2023 season, 109 (94%) achieved full compliance at the time of inspection.
Seven farms failed to achieve a full compliance status, though none of the breaches posed any risk of environmental contamination.
Over past 18 years, dairy farm numbers have continued to decline, due to amalgamation, smaller farms ceasing supply and wider land use change away from dairying to dairying support, beef, and in some areas hop gardens.
Six farms had minor ponding of effluent on the ground, and one farm breached the 10m set back from an adjoining property when discharging effluent.
Councillor Kit Maling said the concern he had going forward was around the regulations that came into effect in 2025 excluding stock from rivers. It would be a challenge for sheep and beef farms to have the same standards as dairy farms, he said.
