Urea plant faces forced closure over gas supply
One of New Zealand’s largest fertiliser plants could be forced to shut down for four months as uncertainty looms over gas supply.
With variable weather and climate patterns increasingly affecting farm profitability and sustainability, Ballance general manager aginformation Graeme Martin says that farmers are looking for the best possible support to make operational decisions.
"So many decisions on-farm are dependent on the weather, from the timing of baleage or silage operations to spraying and irrigation. The shorter phase forecasting is invaluable to support these types of decisions while the longer term forecasts can support decisions around lambing, feed planning, irrigation scheduling and harvest timing," says Martin
As part of the FarmMet project, NIWA will look to fill six gap areas in Whangarei, South of Auckland/Firth of Thames, South Hamilton, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Southland to position climate and weather stations more optimally for Ballance shareholder use. The plan includes more than 10 new full climate stations to be placed on selected dairy farms, in addition to more than 100 IrriMet stations on selected farms.
However, according to Martin the real power lies in linking NIWA's weather and climate information to Ag Hub, which will give farmers a very powerful tool to support key decisions, mitigate risks and underpin environmental compliance.
FarmMet is an optional module that can be applied to Ag Hub and will give users:
• Hi-resolution weather forecasts
• 2, 6 and 15 day forecasts with built-in verification
• Rolling forecasts of soil water balance, growing conditions and seasonal variability
• National scale forecast maps at 2 and 6 days.
As part of the partnerships' ongoing focus on innovation, Ballance and NIWA are working to deliver Ag Hub users access to weather forecasts at a 1.5 km resolution during the early part of 2015.
