Ashburton Courier: January 16, 2020

Page 22, Ashburton's The Courier, Thursday 16 January 2020
Local news at www.starnews.co.nz
Reducing nitrates for industry good
Mayfield dairy farmers Grant and Jan
Early have been involved in the
DairyNZ­led programme, Forages for
Reduced Nitrate Leaching (FRNL),
which has won an industry award.
The collaborative six­year programme
focuses on reducing nitrate
leaching on­farm.
It has won aSignificant Achievement
Award through the Canterbury Section
of the New Zealand Institute of
Agricultural and Horticultural Science.
The Early’s were among the more
than 100 people and ten commercial
farms who joined the project to learn
more for themselves and as away to
help the industry.
“Nutrient management is going to
affect everyone. The sooner we have
some tested solutions on how we can
mitigate nitrate leaching, while still
farming profitably, the better it will be
for the industry as awhole,” they said.
At the start of theproject theirfarm,
which sits on Ruapuna soils and has an
annual rainfall of 800mm, was 375 ha,
90 percent irrigated, at astocking rate
of 3.9.
They had a550 ha dryland support
block providing winter grazing (Kale)
and grain for the dairy.
Since being involved in the FRNL
project the couple have made afew
changes to their operation including
plantain in their regrassing regime,
decreasing their stocking rate to 3.7
cows per hectare, introducing fodder
beet on to the milking platform
followed by an oat catch crop and
reduced the support block to 250ha of
irrigated land, using a rotation of
fodder beet­barley­short rotation
ryegrass­fodder beet.
This has resulted in adecrease inN
surplus ofsix percent and estimated N
leaching of 13 percent.
“We now understand the surpluses
that come from nitrogen fertiliser and
nitrogen in supplements, and how we
can change those to make a difference,”
Mr Early said.
DairyNZ senior scientist Dr Ina
Pinxterhuis said those people and
business were involved in the science,
development and farm application of
the FRNL programme identifying pasture
and crop options farmers can use
to reduce nitrate leaching.
“We’re all extremely pleased to
receive this award, and we are even
more delighted to see that many
Grant and Jan Early
farmers have been following the programme
and have already adopted
some of the lower nitrogen pastures,
crops and practices into their farm
systems to improve their environmental
management.”
The programme drew onacrossorganisation
team from DairyNZ, the
Foundation for Arable Research, Lincoln
University, AgResearch,Plant and
Food Research,and Manaaki Whenua
­Landcare Research. Eight PhD and
post­doctoral students have been part
of the programme along with several
Honours and Masters students.
“We started in 2013 when farmers
and the community were looking for
better tools and farming practices that
could help reduce nitrates in their
systems and ultimately reduce any
impacts on freshwater and groundwater,”
Dr Pinxterhuis said.
As part of the programme farmers
trialled arange of options to reduce
their nitrogen leaching by 20 percent.
Options included planting low­protein
feed crops such as fodder beet, and
pasture specieslike plantain and Italian
ryegrass which result in less or diluted
nitrogen excretion by animals and more
nitrogen uptake from the soil.
FRNL scientists are now working
with Overseer so it can model the
practices used as part of the programme.
Fun and games
Spot The Difference
Can you find 10 differences between the pictures?
Mighty Maze
2
SNAKES &
LADDERS
Puzzle One
Can you solve the six-letter words?
Connect the letter pairs in the ladder
on the left with the correct pairs in
the ladder on the right, with middle
letters IL. Wehave solved one to
start you off. GRILLS
Puzzle Two
Use the coloured letters to
make two five-letter words on
the snake’s back.
We have given the first
letter of the red word
and the green word.
BU
CH
GR
NA
SA
SM
C
IL
L
OR
DS
ED
ES
LS
LY
Build AWord
How many words of three or more
letters can you make from these
blocks? Youmay use each letter
only once. Plurals are OK, but no
words starting with acapital letter
are allowed. There is at least one
word that uses all five letters.
Good 7 Very Good 9
Excellent 11+
O
G
H
T
U
©The Puzzle Company
MAZE SOLUTION
All puzzles ©
The Puzzle Company
BEGINNER’S CROSSWORD
Across: 1. Pilots, 5. Present,
6. Explain, 9. Sparks.
Down: 1. Pepper, 2.Lie, 3. Toe,
4. Stings, 7. Pip, 8. Air.
BUILD AWORD
got, gut, hog, hot, hug, hut, OUGHT,
out, thou, thug, tog, TOUGH, tug, ugh
SNAKES AND LADDERS
BUILDS, CHILLY, GRILLS, NAILED,
SAILOR, SMILES.
CRUMB, LORDS.
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
1 2 3
5
6 7 8
9
4
Beginner’s Crossword
Across
1. People who fly aeroplanes (6)
5. Agift (7)
6. Give an explanation (7)
9. Tiny pieces of burning stuff that jump
out of afire (6)
Down
1. Salt and ______ (6)
2. Tell afib(3)
3. This is on your foot (3)
4. Anettle ______ your skin (6)
7. Aseed in an apple (3)
8. We breathe this (3)