El aborto en Castilla y León 95

The SDWA and Fonterra’s terms and conditions of supply defer to regional council rules and resource consent conditions, and state that dairy farms will be compliant with regional council effluent management rules 365 days of the year. The One Plan rules state that all dairy farms are required to hold a resource consent to discharge farm dairy effluent (FDE)97 _{to land, and that there} must be no discharge or run-off into a surface water body.

All farms in this study hold a current Dairy Effluent Discharge Consent, and all discharge FDE to land. Mark (Horizons) explained how effluent discharge resource consent conditions have changed over time. Before the One Plan became operative, the regional policy statement (Manawatu Wanganui Regional Council, 1998) stipulated that dairy-shed discharge consents to land would be issued for up to 25 years, and FDE storage was not required. FDE storage and deferred irrigation were not a requirement under the POP, but were introduced in the decision version of the One Plan in 2010. The One Plan stipulates that FDE storage facilities are required for all new effluent discharge consents and for the renewal of existing discharge consents. Farmers without FDE storage are not required to install FDE storage until their current consent expires. The volume (m³) of FDE storage required is farm specific, and storage allows effluent to be withheld during periods of wet weather and to be differentially irrigated to prevent ponding and run-off.

The farmers in this study agree that effluent in waterways is not accepted practice. As Jim reiterates: ‘There's absolutely no way you put effluent into a waterway’. FDE management practices have changed over time98 _{(‘I know it's not going in the drains like it used to when I started}

farming’ – Paul) as have FDE storage practices. Some farmers described how farmers historically had storage ponds, were advised to remove and install sumps, and now are required to install storage ponds. Stu shares his experiences as a farm worker on several farms in the region, and remembers cowsheds being renovated and effluent systems expanded: ‘When the cowsheds were going up we were all being pushed towards fill in our ponds and go to these sort of effluent systems [sumps], that was what was happening in 2002, 2003.’ Max is frustrated because he took out an effluent pond, put in a sump, and now he needs to put the pond back in. He thinks other farmers ‘hate Horizons’ guts because of that’.

97 _{Farm dairy effluent consists of cattle faeces and urine diluted with wash-down water and is a by-product} of cattle spending time in the milking shed, yards and on feed-pads.

The farmers in this study are aware that FDE storage is required. They also understand that storage means effluent is not applied to wet soils (or when raining), and that this reduces N leaching. Roy understands: ‘Storage means that you're not irrigating over wet areas, when it's wet and when there's high leaching. They say there's higher leaching when it's really wet during the winter months.’

As illustrated in Table Nine, all farmers except Paul, Owen/sharemilker Steve and Ken/sharemilker Stu, have made some change to their storage and/or management of effluent in the past five or six years. In terms of effluent storage, the quantity of FDE storage varied on the ten farms in this study. Five of the ten farms in this study have additional FDE storage (e.g. an effluent pond), and Roy was installing additional storage at the time of interview. Jack’s farm had existing storage, and the other four farms installed additional FDE storage within the past six years for management reasons, rather than installing storage in order to renew the farm’s Dairy Effluent Discharge Consent. Max was converting a farm from sheep and beef to dairy, Tom was upgrading a run- down dairy farm without storage, and Jim was upgrading from two herringbones to a new rotary shed. Fred received an abatement notice for effluent ponding and decided to upgrade the farm’s FDE system rather than wait until the effluent consent expired. Roy was installing a Kliptank™ 99 effluent storage system in order to renew the farm’s Dairy Effluent Discharge Consent100_. Installing storage will mean he can increase the FDE application area, and increased FDE application area is one of his farm’s Land Use Consent mitigation strategies.

99 _{A Kliptank™ is an above ground farm dairy effluent storage tank. The other FDE storage option is a lined} pond.

‘Not going in the drains like it used to’ is an example of a change in what is considered to be accepted practice (practice norm).

Table 9: The farm management practice changes made around the management of farm dairy effluent.

¹: One Plan classification: T - targeted; NT - non-targeted *: Jack’s farm had an existing storage pond

Four of the ten farms in this study have limited FDE storage (one to three days) and will require additional FDE storage when their current effluent discharge consent expires (within the next five to ten years). These farmers know they need storage, and Stu explains how storing effluent is now accepted practice: ‘everyone's saying in our climate here with our very free draining soils, that we've got to have some storage periods’. These farmers learnt that FDE storage is best practice from Horizons (in order to renew their consent), from other farmers changing practice, and from other farmers’ expectations of their behaviour. Paul does not have a pond, and comments: ‘Probably there is an expectation of my neighbours that I should put a pond in, which I will in due time’. Two farms without additional storage are sharemilking businesses. These sharemilkers know that applying effluent in the rain is not accepted practice and they would prefer their farm owners to not wait until the consent expires before they install additional storage. One of the farm owners, Ken, is semi-retired from farming and still lives on the farm. Stu, his sharemilker, believes Ken is avoiding a decision about storage:

‘I'm not sure how long his consent is for; he's not at all concerned. I think he thinks he's going to die before it comes up, so he's not at all concerned about it.”

Ken is upset. He thinks ‘Horizons are forcing people’ to put in storage, storage is expensive, and he believes he is conscientious about effluent. Ken does not think their farm requires storage because they have free-draining soils, and even when it is wet, he does not see effluent ponding or run-off:

‘I’ve got to put in a big $200,000 holding tank here, where this farm doesn’t need it, well I don’t think it needs it. Because if it was really wet, and a little bit did wash off the paddocks, that’s only in a case like they had in Dunedin the other day with five inches of rain or six inches of rain. Sure, we had one here the other day, but there’s that much water that’s going to flush that little bit of effluent straight out to sea at any rate.’

Ian’s farm is also without FDE storage, and he faces a difficult decision. He’s estimated he won’t have space for an effluent pond (‘It has to be a certain distance away from everything, like neighbours, creeks, and we don't really have anywhere that fits’), and thinks that in 2024 ‘we won't get a consent to keep dairying on this farm’. Ian talked with his accountant, his accountant advised him to sell, but Ian feels an obligation to retain ownership of a farm that has been in the family since the late 1800s:

‘I don't know, I'll probably just have to go dry stock. I've talked to my accountant, he reckons we should probably sell up and let someone else worry about it. But this farm's been in the family for years, but I don't know. He said the sooner the better, before people realise there's a problem (laughs).’

Some farmers made a change to their FDE management system. These FDE management system changes include: a new irrigator line; increasing the length of the line; burying irrigation line; and improving or changing the FDE applicator. Some farmers changed the FDE system infrastructure while upgrading and/or increasing an existing system, and others changed to renew their effluent discharge consent. Tom installed new irrigator line while upgrading the FDE system, and Roy and Fred increased the amount of irrigator pipework to enable a larger area to be irrigated. Fred buried two and a half to three kilometres of pipe and hydrants as part of the farm’s effluent system upgrade, and this increased the effluent application area by 10 hectares.

Some farmers, like Jim, Fred and Jack, changed their FDE application method to increase control

Ken is in an exit life cycle stage, semi-retired, and planning for his son to take over farm ownership. Ken’s life cycle stage contributed to him ‘avoiding’ installing effluent storage.

irrigator, so changed to a variable speed irrigator to control FDE application rate and prevent ponding. Fred upgraded the farm’s effluent system after an abatement notice and changed to a spitfire irrigator. Jack changed from using a contractor (FDE spread once a year) to purchasing and using a slurry tanker. Jack previously used a contractor to annually pump out the effluent pond, the application area was limited by the contactor’s pipe length, and Jack was concerned about N leaching from large amounts of effluent spread on a small area (‘nutrient hotspots’). Jack’s previous negative experiences with travelling irrigators and effluent ponding encouraged him to retain personal control over effluent application: ‘we thought we don’t want to be cocking up like that, so the only time effluent is going to be spread, is when we're there’. Jack learnt about effluent efficiency at a Dairylink field day (‘increase your effluent area so you're spreading it over a bigger area, so the nutrient loading is less’) and this knowledge influenced his decision to purchase a slurry tanker which he now uses to apply effluent over 85% of the milking platform.

Some farmers changed their FDE application practice to gain control over where they apply effluent. Jack knows from Horizons’ rules that ‘you're not allowed to go [apply effluent] within 50 metres of road boundaries, or neighbour's boundaries, or waterways’. Ian does not have FDE storage, learnt from Horizons not to apply effluent to sloping paddocks, and describes how he changes where he irrigates to minimise effluent run-off to waterways: ‘certain paddocks that I only irrigate in the summer, certain paddocks that are away from creeks, and certain paddocks I irrigate when it rains’.

While all farmers have control over where they apply effluent, only some farmers have control over when they apply effluent. Farmers without FDE storage pump directly from an effluent sump in the yard101_{, and apply effluent in all weather and soil moisture conditions. Steve comments: ‘It}

could be pissing down with rain and we're spreading effluent’. In contrast, farmers with FDE storage can choose when to apply FDE. Max relies on ‘the mental water balance in my head’, the weather and his knowledge of Horizons’ rules (‘no ponding’) to decide when to apply effluent. Fred assesses soil moisture condition (‘bysight walking across them’) and applies effluent ‘after October and when the soil, virtually when the soils can take it’. The next section explores changes made to livestock and forage crop management.

101 _{An effluent sump is typically a concrete holding tank that initially captures effluent generated at the} farm dairy. Effluent from the sump is pumped to an application system or to a storage facility.