Following the recent shocking news of environmental degradation in Southland’s internationally significant Waituna Lagoon, teams of dairying advice experts are swooping on the area.

Experts from Dairy NZ, Fonterra and Environment Southland will be providing technical support and advice on environmental practices to dairy farmers in the lagoon’s catchment area. 

Dairy NZ sustainability team leader, Dr Mike Scarsbrook, says the teams hope to reduce the environmental impacts that the 40 dairy farms in the catchment are having through better management.

He says the Southland community is demanding the region’s dairy farmers look at their practices and do better.

“What we’d like to have is an assessment of the environmental risks on farm.

“So identifying things that under certain conditions could lead to a loss of sediment or nutrients or increased levels of nutrients to waterways leading to the Waituna Lagoon.

“And we’ll be putting in place an action plan for the farmers so they will know the sorts of things they could be doing to reduce the loss of sediment and nutrients from their farms.” 

Fonterra says the Southland lagoon is an important place for the local community, and that both it, and its farmers, need to play their part in protecting it.

Earlier this month a farmer in the Waituna catchment area, 30km Southwest of Invercargill, was fined $60,000 for dumping dairy shed effluent on land, and dead stock into waterways.      

The Environment Court judge who imposed the fine labelled the farmer, Kevin Belling, belligerent.

Federated Farmers says it is contacting the sheep and beef farmers in the Waituna catchment to gauge their need for support.