Bega Cheese Secures Environmental Grant

9 April 2008

Bega Cheese attracted by ‘Designer Carrots’

Bega Cheese, in partnership with Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (SRCMA), has been successful in securing a small national Market Based Instrument (MBI) capacity building grant aptly named ‘Designer Carrots’.

Bega Cheese’s Farm Development Manager, Ken Garner, discusses the ‘Designer Carrots’ project with SRCMA’s General Manager, Noel Kesby.

$20,000 will be used by Bega Cheese and SRCMA to evaluate whether a new MBI, in combination with existing government incentives, would have the potential to enhance voluntary participation by Bega dairy farmers in natural resource management activities at the farm scale.

“The Designer Carrots project will assess alternative methods by which NRM activities can be funded, including such measures as paying a price premium for milk where a farmer can demonstrate that they meet a minimum level of environmental performance,” said Noel Kesby, General Manager, SRCMA.

“Over the last five years, SRCMA has invested over $2million in natural resource management activities on Bega dairy farms, including effluent reuse, wetland and river protection, revegetation, soil testing and nutrient budgeting.

“By exploring options for new MBIs, we anticipate that industry will be in a better position to self-fund continued improvements in the longer-term,” said Mr Kesby.

Mr Ken Garner, Farm Development Manager at Bega Cheese, is hoping that the ‘Designer Carrots’ project will provide them with an opportunity to establish the real cost to dairy farmers in meeting community and industry expectations for environmental performance, especially in the face of climate change.

‘Bega Cheese has developed an Environmental Management System (BEMS) for its farm suppliers and we are currently preparing an EMS for our factory,” Mr Garner explained.

‘This has allowed us to establish a benchmark for improved farm management that is consistent with community and consumer expectations for a clean, green product,” he said.

Both Bega Cheese and SRCMA gratefully acknowledge the financial and logistical support provided by the Queensland Government’s Department of Natural Resources and Water that has enabled this project to be undertaken in the Bega Valley.