by frog
Was it really only one month ago that we were falling off our chairs over the fact that Fonterra was forecast to pay dairy farmers $7.30 for a kilo of milk solids? That gave the average farm $850,000 of income. Well, records are made to be broken, so today Fonterra is hinting the payment could be $7.60. This money will of course be going to an industry that is being exempted from the Emissions Trading Scheme because it would be unfair for it to pay the true cost of carbon pollution. It is also the industry that is responsible for taking most of New Zealand’s fresh water, washing and watering its industrial cows in it, muddying it up and returning what’s left back into our lakes and rivers.
As Russel noted yesterday this is dangerous not just for our environment and health but also, now that the European Union is talking about eco-labelling all food, our economy.
“Federated Farmers and much of the Government are still in denial about the declining quality of our natural waterbodies. Good farmers doing the right thing are being punished by industrial dairy companies making a fortune trading on our clean and green reputation. But if we don’t force industrial dairy to clean up its act then our clean and green reputation will end up tarnished which will damage all our exports, including tourism.?
Published in Economy, Work, & Welfare | Environment & Resource Management by frog on Tue, May 27th, 2008
Tags: dairy, economy, Emissions Trading Scheme, European union, farmers, farming, Fonterra, milk, water
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Let’s celebrate the achievements of our dairy industry rather than carping from the sidelines. This is a great result, ,one of the few successes in NZ business at the moment.
If the Europeans don’t want our milk and butter, we can perhaps grow the market in China and other parts of Asia closer to home. In any case this is not a government issue – the farmers should be able to deal with it themselves if they decide that the increased cost of a new approach is worth it for the market.
What is an industrial cow? I suppose it has straight sides?
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what ‘achievments’ are there to ‘celebrate’..?..
exactly..?
and it is ‘carping’ to complain how they pollute/poison our environment/waterways..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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What about the long term effect of pivot irrigation on the Canterbury Plains?
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Each year Fonterra seems to return a record dividend to the farmers and each year the farmers are free to pollute the canterbury plains. I guess the Optimist isn’t from canterbury and so doesn’t ever use the canterbury rivers.
Does anyone know what checks are in place in canterbury to ensure the quality of canterbury fresh water. Is the canterbury regional council even monitoring this?
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The achievement is being in the right place at the right time. The basic principle of dairy farming hasn’t changed in generations, yet because the demand for their product has increased, and the capacity of supply has gone up less so, the price of the good has gone up, so they get more money for the same thing.
Its pretty much exactly whats happening to oil.
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“..The basic principle of dairy farming hasn’t changed in generations,..”
you got that in one..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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JH, pivot irrigators are by far the most water efficent means of irrigation. If you mean long term effects of the water we are taking out then I dont know if there has been a study done. But I do know that the water tables haven’t dropped in at least the last 5 years when Dairying started moving into Canterbury in a big way, I do know that in Chinas main dairy area the water table is dropping by 5 metres a year in some places! Its border dyke irrigation and the surface water they are taking out that I would be more concerned about.
Turnip28. Enviroment Canterbury (ECan) issues and monitors consents for irrigation water and Effluent discharge. Fonterra will also stop picking up milk from any farms constantly breaking the rules.
There are also rules we work with regarding nitrogen and fertiliser application which we are told minimize leaching. There are also products on the market such as Eco-N which reduce leaching significantly. All the dairy farmers I know around here use it.
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oh and dbuckley…….exactly
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Shorty, your statement is incorrect – the watertables have been dropping significantly in parts of the Canterbury Plains. Environment Canterbury has issued many reports on this issue, including statements of evidence showing this, yet decision makers are still granting more consents…
Since when has Fonterra actually stopped picking up milk? They threaten but it is so difficult to catch unauthorised or non-complient discharges let along proscecute, that it is unlikely to happen all that much.
Pivots are only efficient if designed, maintained and operated correctly, and it has been shown that the “efficencies” are less than equal among different systems and users. Much more user education, measurement of water use, and better design and maintenence is required as most irrigation in Canterbury is elementary at best.
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Waterboy, would you please point me to a report showing the watertables are dropping. I’m talking about the deep water here and cant find anything thru google. Any help appreciated.
From memory there were two cases in the North Island in the last season where Fonterra stopped pick ups for a short time. You are right though that it is very difficult to find those breaking the rules.
And point 3 I concede. But compared to border dyke or roto-rainers, pivots are more efficent but many farmers could make a much better effort to maintain them and monitor moisture levels properly
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Actually I was referring to an article by a zoology professor from Canterbury University on the effect of long-term soil fertility.
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Latest state of the water resource report:
http://www.ecan.govt.nz/Our+Environment/Water/PlansandReports/StateOfWaterResOct07.htm
Also try scanning through some of the groundwater level pages:
http://www.ecan.govt.nz/Our+Environment/Water/Groundwater/Groundwater+Levels/
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