Papawai Ltd directors Dallas Lucas and Peter Donnelly are using tiger worms to deal with their cow effluent, the first farm-based operation of its kind in New Zealand. Mr Lucas told visitors to his farm from the NZ Large Herds conference last week they had inherited an effluent system that was unsustainable in the long term. They had explored many options while researching a replacement effluent system but were unconvinced about holding ponds, he said.

They did not want to install a 3.6 million-litre pond to meet the requirements of having 90 days’ storage – a 2m-deep pond with a surface area of 1500m2 would have been needed – and wanted a simpler, more slimlined option, Mr Lucas said. They milk 550 cows on 213ha but are keen to expand to 750 reports The Southland Times.

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Dairy industry leaders have put farmers on notice to lift their game after a damning report showed many have substandard effluent management systems. Fonterra announced yesterday that from next season it will visit every supplier’s farm each year to inspect dairy-effluent systems. The company has demanded higher compliance with the regulations, with threatening fines and the refusal to collect milk from repeat offenders reports The ODT.

The latest Clean Streams Accord data, gathered by regional councils, shows the number of farmers around New Zealand adhering to council dairy-effluent discharge consents has slipped from 64% in 2007-08 to 60% in 2008-09. “That’s a level that whilst we do not like it, you have got to say it’s not a bad level. It’s one of the best in the country.”

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One in five Canterbury dairy farms fails to meet environmental standards for effluent disposal, a new report says. Environment Canterbury’s annual dairy-shed effluent report found more farms fully complied with environmental standards from 39.6 per cent in 2006-07 to 45.8% in 2007-08.

 It also recorded an increase in the number with significant or major non-compliance problems (20%, up from 17.7% last year) as reported in The Southland Times. Major problems include ponding of effluent, waste being dumped into waterways or nitrogen overload. One farmer has been fined $8500 for environmental breaches and another court case is pending. About a third of the 696 farms monitored had minor non-compliance problems. The report, released yesterday, said there had been little change in compliance rates for the past five years.