Its site featured a miniature environment showing the inputs and outputs measured by Overseer and introduced the concept of nutrient budgeting. Land and environment staff were on hand to show farmers on a big screen what the system can do.
Overseer is an agricultural management tool, developed by AgResearch and widely used throughout New Zealand, that assists in examining nutrient use and movements within a farm to optimise production and environmental outcomes.
The Clover Time Machine display introduces the work AgResearch is doing in developing new hybrids to help boost ruminant productivity and meet the challenges of farming in a changing environment.
Recent research shows that it stems from the meeting of two plants from different European environments: Trifolium pallescens, an alpine species, and Trifolium occidentale, a coastal species.
Glacial movements thousands of years ago forced T. pallescens to lower altitude refuges. The coming together of these two species led to a hybrid with a broad adaptive range: white clover.
AgResearch is using this knowledge of where white clover came from to create new hybrids for changing farming conditions. The site featured some of the white clovers we currently use in New Zealand.
Some new hybrids being developed by AgResearch and the particular benefits they offer, such as drought resistance root depth and enhanced vigour, were also on show. They highlighted the history and future of one of our natural resources, telling the story of where clover came from and how that knowledge is helping scientists breed new clovers to boost ruminant productivity.
The pest map display highlighted some of New Zealand’s worst pasture pests, and introduced Pestweb (www.pestweb.co.nz) to them as a practical way of tackling the problem.
The stand featured live bugs, videos showing infestations, work we are doing to tackle them and touchscreens offering access to Pe665-315stweb.
The pests featured were:
Grass grub and Porina – a glass set up with some live grubs attacking roots.
Black beetle, clover root weevil, Argentine stem weevil: for each of these a potted plant showing damage and live insects in petri dishes, as well as screens showing clover root weevil and plantain moth videos.
The display highlighted a new tool for farmers to ensure continued pasture growth and productivity.
The AgResearch stand theme was ‘Science for a competitive advantage,’ says chief executive Dr Tom Richardson.
“Farmers got the opportunity to see the origins of one of New Zealand’s major natural advantages, white clover, and where we’re hoping to take it. They also saw what we’re doing to protect pasture with PestWeb and optimise production and environmental outcomes with Overseer, as well as talking to our scientists involved in the work.”
“Our staff always enjoy [the Waikato field days] and the opportunity to talk with farmers from around the country. This year was no exception,” says Richardson.
