Dairy farmers in Bay of Plenty are being encouraged to keep their noses clean as the regional council starts its annual round of effluent compliance visits.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council pollution prevention team leader Steve Pickles says while dairy farmers in the region are doing better compliance-wise than they used too, common mistakes are still being made.
"We've done a bit of a review with Federated Farmers and DairyNZ in our region and we've sat around the table and had a look at some of the results over the last couple of years and it seems like one of the big areas is farmers just aren't going out and physically inspecting their irrigators when they're operating," Mr Pickles said.
"So what this means is that the day after, when they go to shift their irrigator on to a new run, they're not actually seeing some of the things that we're seeing when we're out on site during irrigation."
The council's advice to farmers is to go out and have a look at the irrigator while it is operating, to make sure effluent isn't running across the ground and getting into drains or waterways.
Farmers should also make sure they have enough effluent storage space so they don't have to use their effluent irrigators when it's wet, Mr Pickles said.