Stream health and water quality in hill- and high-country deer farms

Environmental stewardship of the land is a self-valued attribute of many farmers, including those farming in hill- and high-country landscapes (Keeling 2023 et al.). Increased awareness of the environmental implications of meat derived diets from both domestic and international consumers, has resulted in increased critical scrutiny on the environmental footprint of pastoral agriculture. Intensive agricultural practices can result in nutrient rich aquatic environments which are not conducive to diverse natural ecological communities and can negatively impact native flora and fauna species. Additionally, the degradation of these aquatic environments has negatively impacted some public recreational activities further highlighting the negative environmental consequences of some agricultural practices. Hill- and high-country farming systems are generally low intensity, low input operations. Most of the current knowledge and mitigations for agriculture were developed from data collected on low slope intensive agricultural land and have little evidential basis for their effectiveness in hill- and highcountry landscapes. This leaves a paucity of information on the quantified environmental impact of hill- and high-country lower intensity agricultural systems. A research programme was commissioned by DEEResearch in 2017 to collect multi-year data on the impact of deer farming on water quality and stream health in hill- and high-country farming systems to provide scientific evidence to support habitat and farm systems applicable solutions to protect or enhance the environment.