Australia has a lower risk of nitrogen run-off compared to New Zealand, due to several key factors like Lower rainfall, less intensive farming and less leaky soils.

Nutrients such as nitrogen are essential for pasture growth and most dairy farms rely on additional nutrients in the form of fertiliser. One of the main pathways of nutrient losses on dairy farms is run-off or leaching into the groundwater and washed into waterways which can cause environmental and economic damage.

Australia has a lower risk of these issues than countries such as New Zealand due to:

• lower rainfall washing away the nutrients
• less intensively farmed catchments and lower animals per farm contributing nitrogen containing urine and dung to the soil
• less ‘leaky soils’ transporting nutrients to waterways.

Despite this, nutrient run-off is still a focus for Australian farmers in terms of fertiliser and effluent (liquid waste) management to minimise the environmental impacts. The Australian dairy industry has prioritised nutrient management on dairy farms and has set a 2030 target for 100% adoption of nutrient management plans under our Australian Dairy Industry Sustainability Framework.

Dairy Australia provides support to Australian dairy farmers to effectively manage their run-off through a range of programs including:

• Fertsmart provides guidance to farmers on nutrient management planning and efficient use of nutrient inputs via fertilisers, organic products and effluent.
• Smarter Irrigation for Profit focuses on efficient use of water resulting in low water run-off and low nutrient loss to waterways.
• The Dairy High 2 trial project with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture is aiming to maintain pasture production using 50% of the nitrogen.
• The Cows Out Of Creeks program in Tasmania provides financial assistance to farmers in building fencing and off-stream watering systems.
• Resources are available in some dairying regions to assist farmers with effective farm effluent design.

A key part of these programs is encouraging testing of soils prior to fertiliser application, to ensure efficient and safe use of expensive fertilisers and a recent farmer survey (2020) suggests that 85% of dairy farmers are doing this – with frequency of testing varying across regions.