{"id":10174,"date":"2014-03-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/how-much-water\/"},"modified":"2014-03-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T11:00:00","slug":"how-much-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/how-much-water\/","title":{"rendered":"How much water?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Although single water meters are being installed on Southland farms to meet Environment Southland requirements, Fonterra wants all its suppliers to measure separately water used for irrigation, milking and stock water by the start of the 2018-2019 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no idea at the moment how much water farmers are using,\u201d Fonterra environment programme lead Michael Hide said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent estimates for milking are 70 litres per cow per day for rotary dairies and 50 litres per cow for herringbones but we have measured some dairies using 320 litres per cow per day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what is normal or good or bad. We just want to understand what is happening and when we find out those that are bad we will be coming to talk to you on ways of improving what you are doing and if what you are doing is really good we will probably use you like a lab rat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, at the point where it compromises the production of safe and hygienic milk, we will not go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said all farms will need at least two water meters, one to measure stock drinking water and one for dairies and if the farm was irrigated another one would also be needed. Water use data will have to be recorded.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe careful how you install water meters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t install them in bends of pipes because they don\u2019t work properly and different types last longer than others. Use Irrigation New Zealand\u2019s Blue Tick Programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said dairy systems which used milk cooling water for stock water or irrigation might be difficult to measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will have to figure out ways to measure water use on your farm that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Fonterra\u2019s customers wanted to know farmers were using water efficiently and communities were also concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to reduce the level of angst in the community and minimise the amount of adverse headlines we are getting in the media around water.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said although there was a public perception that farmers should pay for use of water there were no moves yet for that to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Resource Management Act, stock water is allowed as of right. However, in places such as Canterbury, water is overallocated but because no one knows how much farmers are using, no one really knows how much it is over-allocated by. We simply don\u2019t know if there is a problem or how big it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on Irrigation New Zealand\u2019s Blue Tick Programme visit www.irrigationaccreditation.co.nz<\/a>\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just how much water is used on dairy farms was the question asked at a Dairy Women\u2019s Network (DWN) day on water near Gore in late February.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t