There is no doubt that the present Coalition Government is going to pursue its election promise of making our waterways fit to swim in and our drinking water safe. Minister David Parker has made no bones about the fact that this Coalition Government is going to pursue its goals quite aggressively. He said that if he did not act on the promises made in this regard by the Labour Party, he would be failing in his duties.
He said that first he would have the objective of stopping the degradation of our waterways and then to begin the clean-up. There would be target levels of runoff set and they would be monitored. Any runoff beyond what was deemed acceptable would require remediation of some sort. When asked whether that meant a reduction in stocking rates he replied that we already know that some stocking rates are too high. (We guess that means “yes”)
The Minister then went on to say that what is required is greater monetary value from our products, not a higher level of production.
We will sum that all up by saying that it is obvious that doing what we have always done is not going to cut it any more. Change is obviously in the wind and without wanting to harp on about it we have warned our valuable clients that this day was coming and so it is no surprise to us.
So, we can yell and howl to the wind or we can take heed and, as he has said, go for a premium product from a pristine environment. We are the last one to be siding with a politician but we have been advocating for change for twenty years now and we at Fertilizer New Zealand have tailored our products to look after the soil, stop leaching and runoff and most importantly put more money into the farmers’ pockets. We are talking about a win-win situation here.
Cut back on waste, produce a premium product and make more money. He also talked about higher value crops but we will talk about that another day.
If you talk to us we will help you with a plan to greater profitability.
From the Team at Fertilizer New Zealand