The new year kicked off with Minister Hon. Don Punch joining Western Dairy and the project team on a local dairy farm to promote the latest funding partnership.
During the visit, it was clear how targeted investment is supporting best-practice effluent management across south-west WA.
Our hosts, Dardanup dairy farmers, Phil and Kevin Depiazzi, shared their experience having been involved in over a decade of effluent management projects.
Most recently, they installed a new concrete storage pad for manure solids, bringing the entire system up to the Code of Practice standards.
“The solids pad has been a huge improvement — it keeps the area tidy and makes handling easier as any excess water drains back into the trap” Phil said.
This upgrade is one of many examples of how the project is delivering lasting outcomes for water quality, by helping farmers invest in improved effluent systems.
Phil says the Western Dairy funding through Healthy Estuaries WA made it possible to achieve best practice.
“We want to protect the estuary by containing and reusing effluent well. I don’t think we could have done it without the support,” he said.
Western Dairy Project Manager, Dan Parnell, developed the effluent system design into an effluent management plan and sent effluent samples to the lab for analysis.
“All the effluent is contained over winter, until conditions suit to irrigate nutrients back on paddocks”, Dan explained. “This practice recovers some fertiliser and feed value, while meeting environmental obligations.”
On the horizon
- Approximately ten effluent system upgrades will be designed and subsidised, thanks to funding secured by Western Dairy through Dairy Australia.
- Effluent management plans and nutrient management plans will continue to be developed for interested farms.
- Learnings from the first-year effluent trial will help improve management and data for this season.
- New effluent management technologies are being supported, including a UWA trial of a mechanical solid separator.