Selwyn Times: December 18, 2019
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SELWYN TIMES Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Wednesday <strong>December</strong> <strong>18</strong> <strong>2019</strong> 27<br />
SELWYN RURAL LIFE<br />
ClearTech a game changer<br />
for Lincoln dairy farmer<br />
A revolutionary dairy effluent treatment<br />
system is delivering enormous<br />
environmental benefits for Lincoln dairy<br />
farmer Tom Mason.<br />
Ravensdown’s ClearTech system,<br />
developed in conjunction with Lincoln<br />
University, uses a coagulant to bind<br />
effluent particles together to settle them<br />
out from the water. This clarifying process<br />
reduces freshwater use, helps existing<br />
effluent storage go further and reduces the<br />
environmental and safety risks linked with<br />
farm dairy effluent (FDE).<br />
Mason, who runs 550 cows on his<br />
150ha operation at Green Park Dairy,<br />
says ClearTech is an environmental<br />
gamechanger. Given dairy effluent is<br />
99% water, it makes commercial and<br />
environmental sense to recycle the water<br />
using the ClearTech system.<br />
“We’re in a sensitive environmental area<br />
here that is also quite densely populated,”<br />
Tom says. “So, we were really looking for<br />
the next level on environmental mitigation<br />
and that’s what got us interested in<br />
ClearTech.<br />
“It has significantly increased our<br />
effluent storage capacity. We’ve got<br />
capacity at the moment that meets the<br />
councils’ requirements, but we want more<br />
than that and ClearTech gives us three<br />
times the capacity and that means there<br />
are fewer days we have to spread effluent.”<br />
But it’s in freshwater conservation that<br />
ClearTech really comes into its own.<br />
“We’re using recycled water to wash<br />
the cow yard each day and that’s at least<br />
30,000 litres of water per milking that<br />
we’re no longer using,” says Tom. “When<br />
we’re milking twice a day, we’re saving up<br />
to 60,000 litres of freshwater a day.”<br />
With many lifestyle blocks in the area,<br />
and heightened concerns about effluent<br />
runoff and odour, Tom sees ClearTech<br />
as being an investment in his ongoing<br />
environmental and social licence to farm.<br />
“We’re maintaining our right to keep<br />
dairy farming here. There are real<br />
pressures on this area, with subdivision<br />
into lifestyle blocks, so we need to be<br />
doing the right thing. ClearTech is an<br />
important tool helping us to do that.”<br />
ClearTech product manager Carl Ahlfeld<br />
says the innovative, award-winning system<br />
not only made environmental sense, but<br />
commercial sense as well.<br />
“Reducing compliance risks, saving on<br />
pumping, effluent storage costs are the<br />
bottom-line benefits to those farmers<br />
who also want to do the right thing in<br />
terms of reducing water use and reducing<br />
environmental impact.<br />
“ClearTech is ideal for dairy farmers<br />
who want to save on effluent pond storage<br />
and take back control of their capacity and<br />
compliance.<br />
“Stripping out the E. coli and other<br />
bacteria in farm dairy effluent means<br />
cleaner water to wash down the dairy yard<br />
or irrigate on to paddocks and less volume<br />
of effluent that has to be stored and used<br />
safely. The nutrients in the effluent can be<br />
reused back on to paddocks with minimal<br />
Lincoln dairy farmer Tom Mason.<br />
odour.”<br />
The research behind ClearTech has been<br />
published in internationally peer-reviewed<br />
scientific papers (Cameron and Di:<br />
Journal of Soils and Sediments, January<br />
3, <strong>2019</strong>: doi.org/10.1007/s11368-0<strong>18</strong>-<br />
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