36 / 60
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
% of farms
% nutrient reduction
No change
1-9%
10-19%
20-29%
30-39%
40-49%
50-59%
60-69%
N P
Figure 1
This has been made possible
through the implementation of
the Upper Waikato Sustainable
Milk project, which received
major funding from the Waikato
River Authority ($685,000).
There was additional funding
by DairyNZ and the Ministry
for Primary Industries,
through the Transforming the
Dairy Value Chain Primary
Growth Partnership, making
the DairyNZ-led project
the largest environmental
good-practice catchment plan
ever undertaken by the dairy
industry.
The project has allowed one-
on-one advice and support to
be delivered to 645 farmers in
the Upper Waikato catchment
via the development of a
DairyNZ Sustainable Milk Plan
(SMP). This method succeeds
because actions are customised
to the farm and the farmer can
see how it will work for their
own individual situation.
More than 5,900 voluntary
specific actions are now being
implemented and funded by
farmers. Many of the actions
exceed what is required under
the Water Accord or by their
milk supply companies.
This reflects an average of nine
actions per farm distributed
across the five management
target areas (effluent,
waterways, nutrients, land
and water use). The majority
of actions remain focused on
nutrient management (31%),
effluent management (29%)
and water use management
(17%). Land management
represents 12% and waterways
management 10% of all
recorded actions.
The actions include:
• improving fertilizer
application and storage
practices;
• committing to riparian
management actions over
and above the requirements
of the Sustainable Dairying:
Water Accord;
• actions to better manage
current and future effluent
storage;
• improving water use
efficiency on the farm;
• reducing nitrogen leaching.
Over time, these collective
actions by farmers in the Upper
Waikato will demonstrably
reduce dairy farm-sourced
nutrients, sediments and faecal
contaminants going into the
Waikato River, and will improve
water use efficiency on farms.
Results to date suggest that
nitrogen loss to waterways
would reduce by at least
8 percent and phosphorus
leaching by 16 percent once
all these actions have been
completed. (Figure 1).
Reductions were estimated
based on a combination of
Overseer modelling and expert
judgement, derived from
existing scientific research. No
change represents incomplete
actions or farms with actions
which did not have a direct
impact on N or P load reduction,
although will have indirect
Over the past three
years, dairy farmers
in the Upper Waikato
have been accelerating
the adoption of
environmental good
practice that over time
will improve the health
of the Waikato River.
Upper Waikato
Sustainable
Milk Project
Case study
Figure 1: Estimated mean %
reductions in individual farm N and
P losses should all actions across all
643 SMP farms be completed.
Restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River
34