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Dairying

Last updated: 12 March 2009

Dairying is an important land use and industry in New Zealand and like most intensive land uses, including cities, affects water quality and aquatic environments. The ongoing intensification of existing dairy farms into regions not used to dairying has increased the importance of effectively addressing impacts on aquatic environments.

Dairying and Clean Streams Accord

If environmental management is to be seen as in integral and important component of the dairy industry, an industry-backed action plan to improve the environmental performance of dairy farming is needed.

With the restructuring of the NZ dairy industry, a single company (Fonterra) now covers over 95% of the country’s milk production. In May 2002, the Chief Executives of the Ministry for the Environment, Fonterra, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Environment Waikato agreed to work together to achieve clean, healthy water in dairying areas. This work has resulted in the Environment Minister signing a Dairying and Clean Stream Accord (PDF 73 KB) with Fonterra Chairman, the Minister of Agriculture, and Local Government New Zealand’s Regional Affairs Chairman on 26 May 2003.

The Accord aims to minimise the impact of dairying on New Zealand’s streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands so that they are suitable, where appropriate, for fish, drinking by stock and swimming. The Accord specifies targets to keep dairy cattle out of streams, lakes and wetlands, to treat farm effluent, and to manage the use of fertilisers and other nutrients.

The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord: Snapshot of Progress – 2007/2008 (MAF website) outlines work done during the 2007/2008 dairying season to achieve the targets and objectives of the Accord. (Earlier snapshots were taken for 2006/2007, 2005/2006, 2004/2005 and 2003/2004).
The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord mid-term stocktake report October 2008 (MAF website ) is a stocktake of the environmental initiatives relevant to the dairy industry that aims to place the Accord in a wider context of activities being undertaken by a range of agencies.

Further information

See the fresh water page for related reports, policies, regulations, projects, partnerships, guidelines and tools about fresh water.
For a full list of publications relating to water refer to the water publications page.