Stratford, Taranaki-based AgEnviro Solutions director Samantha Blom has a long and strong history in the dairy e luent sector. Having seen her fair share of e icient, well-designed systems and some less than ideal ones has put her in good stead as a dairy e luent system designer. “I worked as the Team Leader for Dairy E luent for the Taranaki Regional Council for almost 10 years before moving onto a role of Dairy E luent Consultant at Waikato Milking Systems,” Samantha explains. Unfortunately, my position was made redundant in the irst Covid lockdown and that’s when my husband (dairy farmer turned Agricultural Engineer) Ernest and I created our e luent design business. “After I gained my accreditation for e luent design with Irrigation NZ, I was lucky in that I got to pick up where I left o with the Waikato Milking System dealers that I had previously worked with in Taranaki — so that was a huge help at the start having that support initially.” “I also travel to the Wairarapa every 3 to 4 months to do e luent designs and resource consent applications for water & pump technicians Cotter & Stevens.” AgEnviro Solutions now cover the whole lower-North Island and have earned a solid reputation with much of their business coming via referrals from farmers who are already using systems Nailing the design stage that Samantha has designed or water & pump technicians that either she or the farmer has a relationship with. “It’s crucial that the system is tailored to your needs and scale and so it’s really important to get it right early on at the design stage. “In Taranaki; most of the jobs I do are existing oxidation ponds that discharge to water and require full irrigation design which includes pump specs, irrigator specs, hydrant line layout and storage calculations. The focus for AgEnviro Solutions is on new design and Samantha has designed systems for dairy farms varying from 100 cow herds to 2000 cow herds. “The change in dairy e luent technology and the systems we have available to us now compared to even ten years ago has been massive and is quite exciting.” “Being totally independent is great. I’m not selling one particular brand and that gives us total lexibility to deliver what’s best for the circumstances of each farmer.” One recent job this year consisted of an irrigation system upgrade in South Taranaki for farmers Dale & Kelly Picard. “Working with Hunts Farm Services in Hawera, we upgraded their e luent pump and travelling irrigator to more modern technology and installed a concrete tank with approximately two million litres holding capacity.” 027 722 5552 samantha.blom@agenviro.co.nz dnature® test milk, milk powder & dairy products using two unique DNA tests: dnature® tests are new to market for the dairy industry For more information on how our tests can help your industry contact MilkID™ • Confirms the species the product is derived from • Detects & quantifies the level of any contaminating species eg bovine contamination in sheep milk A2Pure™ • Measure the level of A1 & A2 casein DNA in milk- quantifying the % of A1 contamination In farming and food production it is becoming increasingly important to know what’s happening on the farm through to the authenticity and provenance of the inal food product. 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