A Morrinsville farmer has been fined more than $33,000 for illegally discharging dairy effluent.
The case, brought by Waikato Regional Council, followed a complaint laid in late 2011 about effluent mismanagement on a farm owned by the David Van Bysterveldt Family Trust.
Council inspectors found that the feed-pad was thick with effluent and came halfway up one officer's gumboots.
The effluent storage pond at the end of the feed-pad was overflowing and effluent was running from the feed-pad down on to the race and into at least three adjacent paddocks.
One of the employees on the farm stated that he made a decision to scrape the feed-pad as the effluent was so deep that some cows' teats and udders were touching dragging in it.
The investigation found that the farm had an abnormally high stocking rate.
