Otago dairy farmers have been congratulated for upping their compliance around effluent storage and discharges, compared with a year ago.

“It’s really great to see high compliance across the more than 400 farms we’ve inspected in the financial year-to-date, and to see improved compliance another few points up on last year,” Otago Regional Council (ORC) compliance manager Tami Sargeant said.

ORC dairy farm compliance inspections are primarily around effluent management (storage and discharge) with ORC also monitoring compliance with rules for landfills, silage, offal pits and permitted water takes.

For the 10-month year-to-date, to the end of April, dairy inspections were up 28.7 percent, from 317 a year ago to 408.

Full compliance with rules rose from 61 percent of the total a year ago to 66 percent, while those in the grade of “significant non-compliance” fell from three to two percent for the year, Tami said.

“There was also a focus on providing awareness and engaging with farmers on the requirements for animal effluent storage and discharge consents, and understanding when consents might be required.”

Tami said the reasons for non-compliance were largely all related to unconsented effluent storage, effluent pond overflows, effluent ponding, offal pit and farm landfill mixing, setbacks and silage leachate discharges.

“In many of these cases it was a simply a matter of education and reiterating best management practices around some operations, activities or changes to infrastructure,” she said.

PHOTO: Supplied