Waimea catchment

Project goals

The project involves farmers, rural professionals and scientists working together to support implementation of on-farm system changes and catchment interventions that can further improve water quality.

Opportunities to further improve water quality are being developed by working directly with partner farms to demonstrate what change can be achieved at a farm level to meet both farm and community objectives.

Implementation options

Implementation options on each partner farm include a combination of farm system change, good management practices, and edge of field mitigations, with outcomes focusing on farm system analysis and implementation on farm.

Edge of field mitigations

Edge of field mitigations (for example wetlands or bio-reactors) are being piloted in this catchment to complement farm-level changes and further reduce catchment losses to help meet community aspirations.

The project utilises a co-development approach to design and fit edge of field intervention options. Water quality data analysis to date indicates a combination of multiple, small constructions may be more feasible, and have more impact than fewer, larger projects.

How to get involved

An active catchment group operates in the region and is supported by Thriving Southland. Visit  the Thriving Southland website for more information and to get involved.

This project follows on from an earlier catchment project supported by DairyNZ and other partners in Southland’s Aparima Catchment. The project focused on developing farm environment plans to improve farming practices, particularly around wintering. Read more about the Aparima catchment project.