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Southland Regional Campaign

Every year thousands of cattle are transported across Southland on or about the first of June for winter grazing. In the past, it has been a concern for Southlanders, with stock effluent spillages on roads being a driving hazard and a nuisance.

Early in 2009, Southland local authorities, Fonterra, DairyNZ, Federated Farmers NZ, NZ Road Transport Association and NZ Transport Agency joined forces to educate Southland farmers about standing stock and to encourage truck drivers to unload effluent from their holding tanks at temporary disposal facilities.

Temporary facilities for effluent disposal were made available in Lumsden, Mossburn, Centre Bush, Ryal Bush, Wairio and Gore. Meanwhile, the New Zealand Transport Agency continued to develop a network of permanent sites with funding assistance from Environment Southland.

Farmers were advised to stand their stock off green feed for a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 12 hours before they were transported. In addition, the public was encouraged to call Environment Southland's pollution hotline with any concerns about effluent spillage, and compliance officers were on hand to follow up with enforcement action.

The Southland Stock Effluent Working Group developed an educational campaign, with
• advertisements featuring local farmers speaking on their own commitment to standing stock before transport,
• articles in newsletters of all organisations
• information on websites, at libraries, rural suppliers, vet clinics etc
• a factsheet about standing stock issued by the dairy sector
• reminders from the dairy companies on tanker dockets

The campaign was a real success, with all sectors playing their part in minimising the spillage of stock effluent on to roads.

 

 

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