Winstone Gypsum

Southland dairy farmer Abe de Wolde about to check the effluent pump.

The Ecobag storage tank was supplied by Technipharm.

wet and very cold but there have been a few small windows when we have been able to spread effluent on safely.”

And he’s taken the scraping technology from the wintering barns into two of the dairies. Instead of washing the yard, the most hated end-of-milking chore by far, it is scraped automatically.

“We wash inside the dairy and the two or three metres into the yard but the rest is scraped.

“A dairy cow produces one and a half litres of effluent on average every milking but it can take another 50 litres to wash that away per cow.

“That is a lot of clean water that you have to store and pump and then get rid of afterwards.

“And why turn clean water into effluent if you don’t have to?”

Lowering the environmental impact on all five dairy farms as much as possible has always been the goal for Woldwide Dairy Group and effluent management is a key part of it.

With good practices, and the right technology such as the Ecobag, the amount of nutrients entering Southland’s waterways are lessened but also less fertiliser needs to go on to grow the pasture and forage crops to feed Woldwide’s cows.

“Because we don’t lose the nitrogen through methane loss with the Ecobag, it means the effluent we’re putting on is high in nutrients which is exactly what we need.”

Apply Gypsum now

The benefits of gypsum in soil treatment are well known, but its value goes well beyond this:

Helps mitigate flow of nitrates and phosphorus in New Zealand waterways

Addresses sodium from applied effluent issues Reduces surface run-off and drainage loss, reduces preferential flow of water run-off in soil Can be applied by a number of different means to target risk zones

Assists with addressing high soil potassium levels