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TAKE THE NEXT STEP TO FUTURE-PROOFING YOUR FARM ADVERTISER INDEX

Welcome to our NZ Dairy Exporter special publication, Effluent Management Solutions. ur aim with this publication is to focus on solutions for today’s effluent management challenges.

We’ve sourced editorial and advertising from a range of national and regional companies who service the dairy farm sector with effluent management products and services.

Also included in this publication is advice from DairyNZ and independent advisors on effluent system design and compliance.

The first step to create or maintain a compliant effluent system on your dairy farm could be as simple as contacting one of the advertisers who have supported this publication. They are all committed to providing value to the dairy farm sector.

Achieving compliance is not avoidable. It is a requirement to continue supplying your milk to your chosen milk company. Focus on the future and the rewards are tangible, but so is the financial and emotional pain for those who continue to not meet the standard required for our global dairy markets.

More than ever before, the focus is on farming to deliver on environmental standards to ensure our dairy produce remains at the top when consumers seek safe food options for their families.

We might be a long way from our markets in the rest of the world but dropping the ball on maintaining our standards onfarm is only a social media post away from a potentially disastrous backlash.

It’s been a challenging, cool and damp spring so far in 2021, so here’s hoping the weather warms up soon.

Like many of you who are second or third generation farm owners with links to the land dating back 100 years, NZ Dairy Exporter is approaching its 100th year of publishing. The first issue was printed in 1925 and we’d love you to join us soon on the journey to another 100 years.

If you’re already a subscriber to NZ Dairy Exporter, we thank you. If you’re not a subscriber, then visit nzfarmlife. co.nz to find out how you can enjoy and benefit from the country’s most-trusted dairy farming publication.

Tony Leggett,

Publisher

AgFirst Engineering Archway Group Bioworks Casio Industries DairyNZ Effluent & Irrigation Design Flexi Tanks NZ Forsi Innovations Forward Farming IS Dam Lining Kliptank Laser Electrical Putaruru Nevada Numedic Origin Agroup Pedley Slurry Service Precise Dairy Effluent Prime Pumps Ravensdown Ltd Reid & Harrison Ltd Strautmann Hopkins TechniPharm Tow & Farm Williams Engineering Winstone Gypsum

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Front cover: Southland dairy farmers Anita and Abe de Wolde installed a massive Ecobag capable of storing up to 8000 cubic metres of effluent from their dairy unit. The Ecobag was supplied by Technipharm. Find out more about their effluent management system pages 22-23. Picture: Edwin Mabonga.

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TREATMENT CUTS POND METHANE EMISSIONS

RAVENSDOWN AND LINCOLN

University have discovered a way for dairy farmers to cut methane emissions by about 5%.

They’ve found an effluent treatment – an additive used in drinking water treatment – can mitigate almost all of the methane produced in an effluent pond.

On most dairy farms those emissions equate to about 4-5% of the farm’s total methane emissions.

By 2030 farmers are expected to reduce methane emissions by 10% of 2017 levels.

The EcoPond system due to launch this month with the installation of a commercial-sized system at the Lincoln University Research Dairy Farm, is also being installed on a Canterbury dairy farm.

For many dairy farms the EcoPond system will give them the biggest opportunity currently available to make significant progress in achieving the 2030 target without affecting milk production.

The discovery by Lincoln University emeritus professor Keith Cameron and Lincoln University professor Hong Di came during additional studies they were carrying out into the ClearTech system they also helped develop.

The EcoPond additive, ferric sulphate is the same additive used in the ClearTech system although the EcoPond system doesn’t require a mixing tank.

Instead, the ferric sulphate is mixed with the effluent “in-line” as the effluent flows to the effluent pond.

That means EcoPond doesn’t produce clarified water for recycling as yard washdown water but it does mean it will come at about a third to half the cost of the ClearTech system.

The system works by inhibiting the growth of methanogens and also creating an environment that’s not conducive to methanogenesis – through which methane is produced. Studies by the Lincoln scientists have shown methane emissions can be virtually eliminated with reductions of 99.9% possible in effluent.

ClearTech product manager Carl Ahlfeld says the system has huge potential for all New Zealand dairy farmers as the system can be retrofitted into existing systems.

A programmable logic control (PLC) will automatically control the system, adding iron sulphate to the effluent as it flows through to the pond.

The PLC maintains the right amount of additive going into the effluent no matter what the pond size or effluent volume is, no matter how wet or dry the season is or how the effluent’s characteristics might change through the season.

Similar Smart technology to that used in ClearTech will be used in the EcoPond system allowing data to be remotely collected and monitored.

Studies have shown the treatments during the milking period remain effective over the winter or seasonal dry-off while no effluent is being added to the pond.

EcoPond will use similar amounts of the iron sulphate to treat the effluent as the ClearTech system so the annual additive costs will be similar.

Like ClearTech, the level of iron sulphate in the storage tank is monitored using a remote system which alerts the contractor directly that a delivery is required so there’s no need for the farmer to monitor or carry out manual ordering.

Both the EcoPond and ClearTech systems provide the methane mitigation benefit and both also slash E. coli (Eschericia coli) levels in treated effluent, reduce ammonia emissions and cut phosphate loss to water by up to 90% on effluent areas.

The system works by inhibiting the growth of methanogens and also creating an environment that’s not conducive to methanogenesis – through which methane is produced.

ABOVE: Ravensdown Cleartech product manager Carl Ahlfield says the EcoPond system can be retrofitted to existing dairy effluent ponds. LEFT: Lincoln University emeritus professor Keith Cameron and Lincoln University professor Hong Di discovered the potential breakthrough while working on the EcoPond science behind the Cleartech system.