Rotorua Farmer on RNZ Rural News: already doing what's needed for freshwater rules.
This piece (at 1:10) on RNZ Rural News captured how what's been done and underway in the Rotorua Catchment should feel in the rest of the country. I thought it was worth getting transcribed.
PRESENTER: A Rotorua dairy farmer says he's relaxed about the Government's action plan for healthy waterways that was released last week. The plan proposes tougher environmental rules around many aspects of farming including nitrogen leaching and grazing management. Steve Holden farms 700 cows on the Mamaku Plateau.
PRESENTER: And he says the new rules aren't scary but it will take time for improvements to filter through because farmers can't just flick a switch. His property falls under the Rotorua Lake catchment plan which requires dairy farmers on average to lower N leaching by 35 per cent over the next 12 years. Steve says they bought the farm knowing what they had to deal with and it didn't put them off.
STEVE: Yeah so, 2017 we bought the farm and all these rules were in place. And, before we bought, we were actually warned off the area because of these rules. And uh ... I could just see it happening everywhere anyway.
STEVE: There was a talk and it's happening in the Waikato, Horizons, and all around the country, it's already there. So we thought we'd just jump the gun and get into it.
PRESENTER: And how has it been?
STEVE: It's good. It's not a problem at all if you know what you're doing and know how to use the Overseer program which is a computer program that manages our nutrient runoff. It's pretty simple really when you get into it. And if there's tools out there that in the pipeline in coming through that are going to help us.
PRESENTER: Steve Holdem says it's hard hearing farmers attacked all the time. He says when he was at Taratahi agricultural farm 20 years ago, tutors taught him effluent disposal methods which are no longer acceptable and the industry was telling all dairy farmers to increase production by 4 per cent a year. He says there was no talk about the environment back then and he believes farmers have made great improvements in a short time.
PRESENTER: A Rotorua dairy farmer says he's relaxed about the Government's action plan for healthy waterways that was released last week. The plan proposes tougher environmental rules around many aspects of farming including nitrogen leaching and grazing management. Steve Holden farms 700 cows on the Mamaku Plateau.
PRESENTER: And he says the new rules aren't scary but it will take time for improvements to filter through because farmers can't just flick a switch. His property falls under the Rotorua Lake catchment plan which requires dairy farmers on average to lower N leaching by 35 per cent over the next 12 years. Steve says they bought the farm knowing what they had to deal with and it didn't put them off.
STEVE: Yeah so, 2017 we bought the farm and all these rules were in place. And, before we bought, we were actually warned off the area because of these rules. And uh ... I could just see it happening everywhere anyway.
STEVE: There was a talk and it's happening in the Waikato, Horizons, and all around the country, it's already there. So we thought we'd just jump the gun and get into it.
PRESENTER: And how has it been?
STEVE: It's good. It's not a problem at all if you know what you're doing and know how to use the Overseer program which is a computer program that manages our nutrient runoff. It's pretty simple really when you get into it. And if there's tools out there that in the pipeline in coming through that are going to help us.
PRESENTER: Steve Holdem says it's hard hearing farmers attacked all the time. He says when he was at Taratahi agricultural farm 20 years ago, tutors taught him effluent disposal methods which are no longer acceptable and the industry was telling all dairy farmers to increase production by 4 per cent a year. He says there was no talk about the environment back then and he believes farmers have made great improvements in a short time.
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