Farming leaders' pledge to clean up rivers 'bollocks' - Wairarapa farmer

A Wairarapa farmer has labelled a promise by farming leaders to improve river quality "bollocks", saying farmers need sound scientific data in order to make environmental decisions. 

On Tuesday, farming leaders representing 80 percent of the industry pledged to make rivers swimmable, although they didn't give a timeframe or details on how they'd achieve it.

Grant Muir says farming leaders "are dreaming if they think some bureaucrat sitting in an air-conditioned office can tell farmers what to do and how to spend their money on farms".

"It's bollocks because they haven't engaged with the farming community to see what they think about all this.

"It's people sitting in their ivory tower telling farmers what they are going to do."

He says the pledge appears politically motivated, especially given its lack of detail.

"It's aimed at making the general public think, 'great, farmers have got it under control, I don't need to vote Green or Labour or whatever'. It's a load of bollocks. It really is."

Mr Muir created an inexpensive floating device that tests water quality. He says farmers want to change and manage their farms in an environmentally sustainable way.

But he says testing done by NIWA and regional councils is selective and incomplete, with only 9-13 percent of rivers tested.

Relying on that data won't produce the data sets required for farm management, he says.

He says farmers need robust water quality data before they invest in improving water quality.

"The water quality issue in New Zealand can be easily resolved once we engage and deploy a network of monitoring systems.

"This will allow sound monitoring and management practice to be implemented, allowing for the generational improvement that the farming leaders are talking about."

Mr Muir is currently trying to raise enough donations for the beta testing and commercial release of his device, the RiverWatch sensor.

It tests for a number of parameters to determine river health, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH level, turbidity and dissolved nitrates and phosphates.

Newshub.