With the provisos discussed above, and the limited
data for non-dairying sites, the analysis presented
here suggests that increased dairy farming has been
associated with increasing DRP in Southland. There
has been a worsening in other water quality variables
(oxidised N, DO) but these also occurred in nondairying
catchments. A regional improvement in
observed water clarity was related to reductions in
river flows—it essentially disappeared after flow
adjustment. Continued monthly water quality
monitoring is desirable to watch for emerging trends