A decade of practical environmental action
At a glance
A snapshot of voluntary environmental action across the FAMA farmers the past decade.
This work has been farmer-led, long-term and ongoing. It reflects a deep commitment to protecting Te Waikoropupū Springs while farming responsibly for future generations.
Over the past ten years, our farmers have made wide ranging, voluntary changes to how they farm, with a shared focus on protecting water quality, strengthening ecosystems, and improving long-term farm resilience.
These actions have been led by farmers themselves, often ahead of regulatory requirements, and reflect a strong commitment to caring for Te Waikoropupū Springs while maintaining viable family farming businesses.
To better understand the scale of work already underway, FAMA recently undertook an exercise asking each farm to record any actions taken over the past ten years, large or small, that contribute to environmental outcomes. The results show a substantial and consistent body of voluntary action across all farms, rather than one-off initiatives.
These actions include reducing stocking rates, breeding more efficient cows, maintaining and enhancing riparian fencing established well before the WCO (most farms had waterway and wetland fencing through the Fonterra Clean Streams Accord), widening buffer zones beyond regulatory requirements, adding native plantings to complement existing riparian vegetation, proactively retiring additional sensitive areas ahead of regulation, whole-farm environmental planning, and improving soil health. All farms are actively managing nutrients through tools such as Overseer, reduced nitrogen inputs, changes to fertiliser application methods, and significant upgrades to effluent and irrigation systems to reduce loss risk.
These ongoing changes reflect a strong culture of stewardship and continuous improvement, and a collective willingness to adapt farming systems to protect water quality and ecosystem health.
FAMA farmers remain committed to understanding their environmental footprint, refining their practices as science evolves, and working constructively to protect Te Waikoropupū Springs for future generations.
To help FAMA farmers understand what is happening on their land, they hired Clint Rissman from Land and Water Science to deep dive into the psychographics of their land through radiometric mapping.
This was invaluable in providing farm insights to help with mitigations. You can find out more about the LandscapeDNA methodology here.