Good management practices
Good management practices form part of your farm environmental management plan. They provide ways to reduce the amount of contaminants lost from your property.
Getting started - what do I need to know?
In order to implement good management practices you'll need to know:
- How contaminants move - called transport pathways'
- What physiographic zone you're in
- Whether your part of the zone is classed as a variant'
Transport pathways - how do contaminants move?
Firstly, what are contaminants?
- Nutrients - specifically, nitrogen and phosphorus
- Sediment
- Microbes
There are four key transport pathways through which contaminants travel:
- Overland flow (runoff)
- Deep drainage of either nitrogen or phosphorus (leaching to groundwater)
- Artificial drainage (such as tile drains and mole pipe drainage)
- Lateral drainage of phosphorus and microbes (movement horizontally through the soil profile)
Transport pathways and physiographic zones
Yes the two are linked!
Zones differ in the way contaminants build up and move through the soil, through areas of groundwater, and into our rivers and streams.
Key transport pathways for contaminants differ for each physiographic zone. For example in Old Mataura it's deep drainage, and in Alpine it's overland flow.
What zone am I in?
Physiographic zones and variants impact what good management practices you'll include as part of your farm environmental management plan.
View our physiographic zones map to find out your zone.
Variants are shown as lighter and darker shades of their physiographic zone colour. For example, Lignite/Marine Terraces is purple, the (a) variant is lighter purple, and the (o) variant is darker purple.
Know your pathways
Use the table below to find out the main transport pathways for your zone and/or variant:
For more tailored advice, get in touch with one of our land sustainability team and ask about a Focus Activity Farm Plan.
Mitigation options
See the factsheets below for mitigations options specific for each key transport pathway.
Incorporate this information into your good management practices.
Good management practice factsheets - contaminant movement
- Good management practice factsheet - artificial drainage.pdf (PDF, 1.2MB)
- Good management practice factsheet - deep drainage of nitrogen.pdf (PDF, 1.3MB)
- Good management practice factsheet - general good management practices.pdf (PDF, 1.2MB)
- Good management practice factsheet - Lateral and deep drainage of phosphorus and microbes.pdf (PDF, 868.9KB)
- Good management practice factsheet - overland flow.pdf (PDF, 1.2MB)
Land management research
Study: Mitigating on-farm losses and land use change
Continuing intensification of agricultural land, particularly land use conversion from traditional sheep and beef to dairy farming and increasing production on existing dairy farms, is putting additional pressure on Southland's waterways.
Study: Land Use Change - Agriculture
Southland was colonised relatively early in New Zealand's history and has undergone a dramatic change in vegetation cover over the past 150 years. Download the factsheet to read more about this change.
Study: Land Use Change - Environmental Impacts
Poor water quality in lowland streams and rivers in Southland has been linked to the rapid intensification of land use. Scientific studies have shown that soil and water quality is strongly linked to land use and land management practices.
Study: Land Use Change - Indigenous Vegetation
Southland is home to a diverse range of habitat types, ranging from forests to wetlands. However, what we see today is just a fraction of what once covered Southland.
