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Crop dusting aircraft equipped with a Crop Circle Sensor (Holland Scientific) used to monitor crop development. The alternative field trip – viewing Vertisol soil pits, hosted and initiated by Josh, an undergraduate UNE student (Reddy, James, Josh, photos right: Carolyn) Research presented at this conference by our team included; EM mapping for variable rate irrigation scheduling (Carolyn), GPS tracking dairy cows (Ina), crop sensing (Reddy, Ian) and the use of remote sensing for improving dairy farm effluent management (James Hanly). On the final day, an animal tracking session between researchers and practitioners was held to identify key applications of technological advances, which included the use of sensors on cows that could provide virtual fences or be used to track their movement and behaviour throughout the day. Environment Waikato Reece Hill and Peter Singleton are finishing off the draft revision of Environment Waikato‘s Regional Policy Statement. Chris McLay reminded this Soils News correspondent that he is still a soil scientist. Not sure what he is doing but it must be important. Bala Tikkisetty is back as sustainable agriculture coordinator in the environmental education unit. He has been organising a seminar for the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management on 'Climate Change and its implications for Farming'. It will be held on the 1st October 2009 at the Staff Club, AgResearch, Ruakura campus. Speakers included Dr Stewart Ledgard of AgResearch on "Life Cycle Analyses" and Dr Anthony Clark of NIWA on "Climate Change Adaptation". Matthew Taylor and Nick Kim have been processing yet more consents for discharge of biosolids to land. Matthew is back from the UK after a Royal Society of New Zealand Bilateral Research Activities Programme Award where he discussed soil quality issues and the dealumination theory with Colin Campbell (head of soils research) and his team at the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen and with Crawford Jordan and his team from the Agri-food & Biosciences Institute, Belfast. Matthew was able to combine this with a New Zealand Association of Resource Managers Lance McCaskill award to attend the BSSS/ISSS Soil Quality = Environment Quality Conference, Castle Johnstown, Wexford, Ireland, where he gave an oral presentation ―A review of key issues and indicators after twelve years soil quality monitoring in the Waikato region‖ (see photo). While there he had notable discussions on the use of bioindicators with Michiel Rutgers from the Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, and Phil Brookes from Rothamsted Research. A highlight was a visit to Castledockerell Agricultural catchment, which is a study evaluating the Nitrates Directive National Action Programme in Ireland. This programme requires limits on the use and storage of fertiliser and restricts certain arable practices to minimise mobilisation of NO 3 . Water quality is measured at several points through the catchment and results related to land use and land use practices. 168
AgResearch Grasslands Iris Vogeler was touring Europe over the last 6 weeks. She attended the Water Resource Management Conference in Malta, where she presented a paper on ―Land based disposal of wastewater: Fate of Phosphorus‖, for which she received the Hromadka Award, a distinguised Participant Diploma for her presentation. Iris was invited to give a talk on ―Environmental Impact of Agriculture in NZ: Measurements and Modelling‖ at the University of Grenoble, France. She also visited the Universities of Hannover and Berlin, Germany, where she was involved in collaborative studies on nutrient transport and biochar. Alec Mackay recently starred on television, and below is the press release relating to his appearance. „Farming below the soil‟ AgResearch scientists are looking to add soil bioengineering to the list of technologies that are used by pastoral farmers. AgResearch Senior Scientist Dr Alec Mackay whose team have been looking at creatures, such as earthworms, mites, springtails and nematodes in our soil, and soil services management says this focus is long overdue. ―Our farming sector has spent a lot of time and effort on the above-ground aspects of our pastoral systems, these are now highly engineered, with attention paid to livestock breeds, crop and grass choice, fertiliser and irrigation. In comparison the size and composition of life below the ground is often given little consideration,‖ said Dr Alec Mackay. ―People would be surprised to find that on an average sheep paddock the life under the ground weighs more than the livestock. For example, in fields we have investigated, earthworms alone weigh nearly four times that of the live weight of the ewes grazing on top,‖ said Dr Alec Mackay. Earthworms consume dead plants and manure and mix organic material with the soil. This increases fertility and plant growth and prevents plant nutrients accumulating on the soil surface and then washing away. Worms also create burrows that assist with air and water movement in the soil. AgResearch‘s Ross Gray, one of New Zealand‘s few experts in this field, says ―A key issue is that New Zealand only has a small number of useful pasture earthworms, and these are spread unevenly through the country. This is because most pasture earthworms were introduced accidentally by European settlers who brought over potted plants.‖ ―Northland, Auckland and Hamilton are lucky to have a large number of introduced species, including a number of very useful deep burrowing earthworms, which likely arrived in ships ballast. Other regions including much of the South Island have few such earthworms,‖ said Ross Gray. In Europe earthworm species diversity under pasture is much higher. Ross Gray sees a need for research into better distributing the useful species that have established in New Zealand. Alec Mackay says tests have shown improvements in pasture production of 10-30% from earthworm introductions to soils with little or no activity. Soil communities also include mites, springtails nematodes, and various insect larvae. These invertebrates are also important for decomposition, incorporation of litter and nutrient cycling. AgResearch, in partnership with Massey University, is developing a soil invertebrate index that describes and quantifies invertebrates living below ground with an aim to link these invertebrates to the services that our soils provide. This work is being undertaken by AGMARDT PhD student Nicole Schon under the supervision of Dr Maria Minor, Dr Alec Mackay, Dr Gregor Yeates and Dr Mike Hedley. The index will provide, for the first time, a basis for farmers to quantify their soils biology, including their earthworms, nematodes, springtails, mites, and assess the extent to which the soils biology is contributing to farm performance. 169
Page 1 and 2: Obituary - Elwyn Griffiths New prof
Page 3 and 4: Your contributions are required - N
Page 5 and 6: Obituary - Elwyn Griffiths (22.8.19
Page 7 and 8: From Phil Tonkin Elwyn joined the S
Page 9 and 10: As I see it, the value of the SWAMP
Page 11 and 12: Announcements New Professor has foc
Page 13 and 14: Notes from CarbonNet Meeting, 24 Se
Page 15 and 16: Prof David Lowe on last year’s
Page 17: Well done to the Earth Science team
Page 21 and 22: AgResearch Invermay Cecile de Klein
Page 23 and 24: Guna Magesan has been invited again
Page 25 and 26: Minutes of a meeting of the NZSSS C
Page 27 and 28: CONFERENCES Soils 2008 - Conference
Page 29 and 30: A dynamic framework for spatial mod
Page 31 and 32: Comparison of spatial prediction te
Page 33 and 34: CONFERENCES An Invitation to the 19

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