Early results from Horizons’ latest round of dairy farm inspections indicate increasing levels of compliance. Horizons compliance officers have completed around 70 out of their 450 scheduled inspections. Officers have inspected dairy farms in Wanganui, Northern Manawatu and Rangitikei. Significant non-compliance was discovered at five of the dairy farms.
Horizons Environmental Protection Manager, Alison Russell, says farmers are now more aware of the requirements of their resource consent conditions.
“The feedback I am getting is that farmers are being far more proactive with their environmental management than ever before. People have some smart operations out there and problems that we found last year with irrigators or pump’s malfunctioning are nowhere near as widespread.”
Trial of a Warrant of Fitness checklist approach is many helping farmers and Horizons staff to identify potential areas of concern. A copy of the WOF was sent to all dairy farmers before the inspection process began at the end of August. The checklist was developed with Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Fonterra and is being formally trialled on a sample of twenty selected farms.
“We have a handful of the WOF’s returned to us, with some people saying they were completely unaware that certain activities had an environmental impact.
“The WOF is not another inspection measure for Horizons. It is all about helping the farmer to fully understand compliance issues and what is expected of them. Farmers can undertake a WOF at any time, independent of our staff being around, and they will be able to use it as a comparison tool from year to year.”
All dairy farms in the Horizons Region will have been inspected at least once by the end of the 2009-10 financial year.
CONTACT: Alison Russell 0508 800 800
Horizons Regional Council is the regional authority over Tararua, Horowhenua, Manawatu, Palmerston North City, Rangitikei, Wanganui and Ruapehu. It also encompasses some parts of Taupo, Stratford and Waitomo Districts.

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