New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts

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Improving the economic and environmental performance of a New Zealand hill country farm catchment: 3. Short-term outcomes of land-use change

M. B. Dodd

AgResearch Ltd
Ruakura Research Centre
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton 3240, New Zealand

J. M. Quinn

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
PO Box 11115
Hamilton 3251, New Zealand

B. S. Thorrold

DairyNZ
Private Bag 3221
Hamilton 3240, New Zealand

T. G. Parminter

M. E. Wedderburn

AgResearch Ltd
Ruakura Research Centre
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton 3240, New Zealand

Corresponding author: mike.dodd@agresearch.co.nz

Abstract The third phase of a multi-stakeholder, integrated catchment management project at the Whatawhata Research Centre is described. Land use and management changes were implemented to improve economic and environmental performance of the Mangaotama case study catchment farm. The major changes included: afforestation of 160 of the 296 ha catchment farm with pine and native trees, riparian management of the entire 20 km of stream network via fencing and/or forestry, restoration of 5 ha of existing native forest, and intensification of the remaining pastoral component to a high fecundity ewe flock and bull beef finishing. Marked improvements were observed in the key environmental and economic performance indicators. In particular, declines in sediment (76%) and phosphorus (62%) loads and faecal coliform (43%) levels were observed, native forest fragments showed early signs of recovery in terms of sapling numbers and vegetative cover, and the pastoral enterprise recorded increased per hectare production of lamb (87%) and beef (170%). There were implementation challenges with the better matching of land use to land capability, but this study demonstrated that significant progress can be made in the short-term.

Keywords afforestation; catchment management; hill country; intensification; land-use change

A07032; Online publication date 10 June 2008; Received 1 May 2007; accepted 14 March 2008

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 2008, Vol. 51: 155–169
0028–8233/08/5102–0155 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2008

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