increase font size
Aslan Wright-Stow, DairyNZ.
DairyNZ and NIWA are jointly looking for riparian plant options that not only benefit the environment, but lend themselves to fodder for stock, food for humans, and even pharmaceutical making.
Thousands of dairy farmers have extensively planted riparian strips to protect and enhance waterways, in line with the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord, says DairyNZ environment manager Aslan Wright-Stow.
He is urging farmers to keep planting as the researchers search out farm environment and economic and social gains.
“We’re looking at different types of vegetation that farmers can use to improve water quality and retain a degree of farm productivity from riparian areas, which will encourage larger setbacks from waterways,” says Wright-Stow.
“One part of the study is to quantify the performance of tree species to intercept nutrients from greater depths than grasses, or other shallow rooting plants, and how those same nutrients can be retained on the farm by practical harvesting techniques.”
Partly they are inspired by hill country farmers who often prune willows or poplars, planted to stabilise erosion prone land, to feed their stock during drought.
Wright-Stow says productive riparian planting for fodder is just one option the research will explore, plus fibre, food and beverages, pharmaceutical products, essential oils and dyes.
The joint project between DairyNZ and NIWA is the first of its kind in NZ.
“This is new territory for NZ. Research overseas has been generally to investigate bioenergy rather than fodder production,” says Wright-Stow.
The project will also look at the best harvesting techniques to cut and carry the vegetation.
“To be effective, harvesting systems must be efficient but not damage the plant or disturb the soil,” says Wright-Stow.
NIWA aquatic rehabilitation leader Dr Fleur Matheson says the research agencies and local farmer groups will work together, “essentially to ensure the research gives practical advice that is workable onfarm”.
The three-year project, starting late September, is co-funded by the Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF). It was one of 15 new projects recently added to the 28 already confirmed in the 2017 funding round.
The SFF funds applied research and projects led by farmers, growers or foresters.
OPINION: In the 1980s, concern was expressed in West Germany about the falling birth rate. Some simple analysis was performed by Professor Helmut Sies, physician and biochemist at Dusseldorf University. His letter ‘A new parameter for sex education’ was published in Nature in 1988:
OPINION: Dairy farmers know better than anyone that change is constant.
A four year trial has reaffirmed that mixing plantain into dairy pastures can help reduce nitrogen losses to freshwater while maintaining milk production and profitability, say researchers.
OPINION: Today marks Farm Worker Appreciation Day – a day we’re proud to recognise here in New Zealand.
OPINION: Mike Chapman, former chief executive of levy-funded HortNZ, has thrown out a challenge to farmers and growers to put their levy-funded industry organisations under the same scrutiny as fertiliser, electricity, labour and freight.
OPINION: The time has come for the Government to back the organic sector.
Plan ahead and be patient. That’s the message to farmers and horticulturalists from the chairman of the NZ Agricultural Aviation Association, Kent Weir.
The industry is crying out for graduates with agricultural related degrees.
While GPS and guidance have become the norm and yield mapping and variable application continues to gain traction, most agricultural machinery manufacturers continue to expand their technology offerings, amalgamating the vast amounts of data being collected to streamline real-time and ongoing management decisions.
Supply chain problems, growing protectionism and a move to greater food security are some of the key challenges facing New Zealand exporters, according to our top trade negotiator, Vangelis Vitalis.
A spat within the ranks of the New Zealand Deer Farmers Association has resulted in the suspension of outspoken North Canterbury farmer Barry Cuttance.
OPINION: After hogging the media limelight for telling a NZ Chinese MP to "go back home", Winston Peters has decided…
OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.
