DEER INDUSTRY NEW ZEALAND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT CODE OF PRACTICE
In May the Deer Industry Environmental Management Code of Practice (DIEMCP) was launched.
Good environmental practices began to be codified in 2004 with the first New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Landcare Manual. That document was comprehensively updated in 2012 with NZLT’s Janet Gregory leading the group of farmers, DINZ staff and Deer Farm Association (DFA) representatives.
Lead authors of the DIEMCP Janet Gregory and Edmund Noonan, were joined on the Code committee by John Somerville, Bob Kingscote, William Oliver, Tony Pearse and Lindsay Fung, representing the deer industry, and Leo Fietje, Dave Connor and Bala Tikkisetty from regional councils. Focus farms and Advance Parties that concentrate on environmental management, and research programmes looking at ways deer farmers can improve environmental performance, had all contributed.
NZ Landcare Trust videos showing good deer farming environmental practices, and Deer Fact Sheets have been created that highlighted environment topics.
The code is fantastic resource, practical and easy to follow.
I was pleased to see that some of the things I’ve been doing at home are also in here! At Raincliff Station, we have our share of environmental challenges.
When you’re farming deer, that means you have to take a lot of care with pretty much everything – stock management, paddock design, the crops you grow, water reticulation, nutrient management, waste management – you name it, we have to think about it.
– David Morgan, NZ Deer Farm Association
“It’s no longer good enough to just go out and change a few things on your place in the hope that you’ll be complying with the rules. It takes good planning, good advice and good documentation. You need to show you’re doing the right thing. The Deer Industry Environmental Management Code of Practice brings together and updates all of the good advice that’s gone before, and it provides you with a clear pathway for putting that into practice in a way that’s going to satisfy the regulators.” – Ian Walker, DINZ Chair
The document, which was designed by NZ Landcare Trust, is broken into easy to use sections relating to good management practice and recognises deer specific behaviours for management. It is designed to help farmers compile their Farm Environment Plan as well as being a resource for rural professionals and council staff on GMPs for deer farming.