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nz
R
ex Butterworth was doing very
nicely on his Matamata dairy
farm. Milk production was good,
prots were respectable and the
cows looked a picture as they
grazed on the lush green pasture
of the Waikato.
But beneath the surface, Butterworth was
aware that his pastoral idyll was leaving a
dirty mark on the environment. His cows,
like those of most other New Zealand dairy
farmers, were excreting at will on the pad-
docks. The excess nutrients were leaching
through the porous ground to the shallow
water table below. And their big hooves were
damaging the soils.
There was nothing extraordinary about
the environmental impact his operation
was having. Quite the contrary. The volume
of cow urine dumped on the soil and the
excess nitrogen that trickled down into the
THE DAIRY DILEMMA
NewZealandseconomyreliesondairyfarming,
buttheindustrypollutesrivers.Canthisconict
beresolved?by REBECCA MACFIE