Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord

Dairy farmers are tackling environmental issues head on and have made significant progress on their commitment to farming within environmental limits.

Protecting waterways - progress report

Five Years On… a new report on the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord sets out farmers’ key achievements in protecting waterways.

This report includes updated reporting methods to provide even greater data assurances. Farmers have made continuous improvements on bridges, culverts, nutrient management plans, effluent assessment, and effluent management.

Highlights - what we've achieved so far

Audited data

Unaudited data

About the Water Accord

The Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord is a set of national good management practice benchmarks aimed at lifting environmental performance on dairy farms.

The Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord was launched in July 2013 setting out the dairy industry’s commitment to improving water quality in New Zealand. The first annual progress report detailed what the Accord achieved in its first year of operation from June 2013 to May 2014.

The Water Accord includes commitments to targeted riparian planting plans, effluent management, comprehensive standards for new dairy farms and measures to improve the efficiency of water and nutrient use on farms.

The Water Accord is one of the first actions for the new dairy industry strategy, Making Dairy Farming Work for Everyone.