A Katikati dairy farmer has a pressure gauge connected to his toilet water pressure so while he's taking a leak he can also see if there is a water leak on the farm.

It's a good example of how to find water leaks quickly; a key message DairyNZ is hammering home to farmers as part of its Smart Water Use programme.

Water is a finite natural resource and conserving water use is not only a smart environmental decision; DairyNZ says it's a smart economic one too.

With an increasing number of regional council water regulations and restrictions, water use is an issue that dairy farmers will be forced to take more seriously in the future.

DairyNZ consulting officer Wayne Berry says traditional attitudes need to change.

'We take water for granted on farms; how we use it. It's something that turns up daily and then disappears.”

But water is a resource and farmers are going to have to pay for it, if they aren't already, and will have more restrictions put on their water take.

Variation 6

With the likes of Variation 6 being introduced by the Waikato Regional Council, becoming part of dairy operations, Wayne suspects water consents are going to be a nationwide requirement.

'There is change in legislation coming; so as a farmer you want options and you want options for long-term sustainability,” says Wayne.

'How would you feel if your water was restricted? Or if you had no water tomorrow? There'd be no milk.

'I want the choice of water use because I want choice of profitability; let's have control of our destinations.”

Wayne says farmers shouldn't get 'tied up with thinking it is about compliance” though. A dairy farmer himself, Wayne says there are many ways farmers can become more efficient using water, which will create less effluent to deal with, and more importantly have a positive effect on their bottom line.

'This water usage future has got nothing to do with compliance – and your regional councils coming and whacking you with a compliance stick and the cost stick again; it's actually reality.
'And you can get more profit by being smart with your water.”

Open water talks

DairyNZ, together with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, held open discussions across the Bay of Plenty on Smart Water Use during February.

The sessions were framed to get farmers thinking about how they use water and where there are opportunities to conserve it or reuse it before it goes into the effluent pond.

Wayne says there is a big theme coming on where water efficiency ties in on a dairy farm – and the answer is effluent .

'Effluent is a pain to deal with and there is going to be more and more requirements for us to deal with.”

With the looming pressures on farmers to build bigger effluent storage ponds; have farmers stopped to consider using less water instead? The sessions discussed examples of water use both on the farm and in the dairy shed and how farmers can create a more efficient, sustainable and, more importantly, a more profitable system.

Everybody has a ‘pet water line' that requires more maintenance and is consequently costing more money; 'just like your pet cows, it requires more attention than you can afford to give it,” says Wayne.

'I'm surprised how farmers put up with pain-in-the-backside waterlines – replacing it can save you time and cost.”

There are many alert systems and technologies available to help farmers find water leaks early, including light alerts and pressure gauges, which can be put in good visual spots around the farm.”

Dairy shed water

Wayne says in the dairy shed there are several areas to think about:

• Reuse the plate cooler water; by putting it into a second tank for wash down purposes is a good start.

• Put a timer on the yard hose to get farm workers to use less water.

• Use ‘green water' off the effluent pond for wash down (a new regulation brought in last year).

The DairyNZ average of water use by farmers is 70 litres/per cow/per day for drinking water, and 70 litres/per cow/per day in the dairy shed.

DairyNZ Smart Water Use programme manager Gord Stewart says these are old figures that vary hugely across farms, depending on what systems they have in place.

He says the key is for farmers to use the systems they have the most efficient way they can.

'Water is a finite natural resource. We've all got our part to play.”
To read more ways of how to improve water efficiency, visit www.dairynz.co.nz