increase font size
Midwinter drilling of oats, triticale, and Italian ryegrass in trial test plots at Craigmore Farming’s Te Awa farms in Te Pirita, Canterbury.
Lincoln University-owned research and development company Lincoln Agritech says dairy farmers might improve their environmental footprints and profit through two research projects now underway.
Lincoln Agritech got hefty grants in the latest round of the Ministry of Primary Industry’s Sustainable Farming Fund for two three-year studies that began on July 1.
One is looking into using winter catch crops to reduce nitrate leaching loss, and the other into using real-time optical sensors to direct variable-rate fertiliser application in dairy pastures.
Dr Peter Carey, who heads the catch crop study, said research already showed farmers could use nitrogen more efficiently while reducing their environmental footprint, by following grazed winter forage crops with a crop that can be lifted for green chop silage in November. The study aims to show how it could be up-scaled from research trials to commercial working farms, and done reliably and consistently, using various crops under various conditions.
“It can be a win-win situation. But traditionally, trying to sow a crop in the middle of winter is not usually encouraged. Often those paddocks have lain fallow until the next sowing of a winter forage crop or pasture in spring.”
Carey says that rain and leaching from grazed winter feed paddocks can cause a major loss of nitrate.
“It may be only 10% of their farm area, but it may be 40% of their nitrogen loss over that year.”
He says some farmers are experimenting with winter crops but with variable results. They want confidence that it would work, and the study is aimed at producing workable guidelines.
Carey says contractors involved in the study are also enthusiastic, as winter sowing could bring them work at an otherwise quiet time of year.
The study will be trying out new technology -- a power spade plough imported from the Netherlands and designed to manage even wet soils. The spading action helps drive the tractor forward as it works, rather than it relying on tyre traction in muddy ground.
Lynnette Hudson's 30-year obsession with Pinot Noir was sparked working vintage in Burgundy, seeing how subtle changes in terroir were expressed in the glass. It was, she says, "an elightening moment in every way".
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.
Twenty five secondary school students from around New Zealand recently completed a three day residential programme designed to explore career opportunities across the food and fibre production supply chain.
A Lincoln University student is set to become the first person to contest both the Young Viticulturist and the Young Winemaker national titles in one year.
Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.
Testing confirms H5 bird flu in a single northern giant petrel, found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach in the Wairarapa, says Dr Mary van Andel, the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) Chief Veterinary Officer.
"What's for dinner?" may sound like a simple question, but for many Kiwi parents, answering it has become a job in itself.
Fifty Eight years ago, on the 16th of August 1968, August Claas, the founder of the harvesting company and father of Helmut Claas, personally presented a Claas Senator combine harvester to Scottish farmer John Steven.
New Zealand consumers are paying more for beef mince than ever before, with the average retail price now sitting above $24 per kilogram, according to Rabobank.
State farmer Pamu has delivered its strongest operating result on record.
Four years since it was first detected in New Zealand, researchers and growers now know much more about management of maize pest fall armyworm (FAW).
