Clean Green Farming
The Northland Regional Council this year has launched a scheme to help farmers move towards environmentally agriculture. The scheme will involve six Northland farms on a year long trial to compile "environmental farm plans" that will then be used as blueprints for future reference.
The six properties, a mixture of dairy, dry stock, forestry and horticulture will be assessed by a team of NRC officers for environmental impact.
The owners will then be handed plans outlining environmental measures they can use to minimise impacts upon ecosystems. It is then hoped an ongoing service for farmers will be set up at NRC headquarters offering advice for those interested in environmentally sustainable agricultural practices.
The objective of the trial is to determine the level of demand for this service within Northland and to determine the resources, particularly in staff time which may be required if the council is going to continue to provide the service.
The first step is to undertake a detailed survey of the physical and biological resources of the property" Mr Bob Cathcart said. All six farms will be assessed for environmental impact. Things like erosion threat, effluent discharge, pugging risk, and the siting of silage pits, farm dumps, offal holes and chemical and fertiliser storage facilities will be studied.
The farm plan will then cover management issues with the farmers like stocking rates, fertiliser application, waste management, riparian and wetland management, forestry and shelter belts.
With the farmers aspirations of the property taken into account a " farm plan " will then be written.
The trial was set up after a reference to the trial sent out to all landowners with the last rates assessment prompted several enquires form the public. Most of those were from small block owners, but Mr Cathcart said that, given the greater environmental gains to be made, farms of a commercial scale only will be included in the first stages of the trial.
Ongoing results of the trial will be detailed for the public with farm field days and discussion groups.
The six farms involved are:
A dry stock property within the catchment of a dune lake with problems controlling African Feathergrass.
A farm-forestry grazing block at waiotira that has erosion trouble.
A recent dairy farm conversion unit in the Otamatea district.
An intensively farmed dairy unit at Mata with long river boundaries.
A developing horticulture block in the Far North.
A high producing dairy farm with irrigation near Kaikohe.
NorthLAND, Thursday, October 15 1998