20 Feb 2013

Fifth of northern dairy farmers 'non-compliant'

1:13 pm on 20 February 2013

One in five dairy farmers in Northland have not complied with their effluent resource consents this season.

Two hundred dairy farms are significantly non-compliant according to Northland Regional Council.

However, operations director Tony Phipps said that's still a big improvement on last season, when 300 farms were in the significantly non-compliant category.

He said many farmers have invested heavily in improvements to their effluent disposal systems in recent years and the industry is starting to realise the benefits.

Mr Phipps said the level of non-compliance in Northland is partly to do with the council's policy of not warning farmers when it will carry-out an inspection - as happens in other regions.