24 October 2001
Dairy farm research scheme gets help from Government grant
A commercial 650-cow irrigated dairy farm set up by Lincoln University to develop methods to improve the efficiency of fertilisers, water and supplementary feed use has been given a $226,000 Government grant.
The grant's been given as part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's Sustainable Farming Fund scheme which was established to help fund projects that will result in economic and environmental benefit to the rural sector and its communities.
Sustainable Farming Fund Manager, Kevin Steel says the dairy industry faces a major challenge is building productivity to remain internationally competitive without significantly compromising the environment.
He says a major concern with dairying expansion in the South Island is the potential threat to the quality of water, particularly by nitrate and phosphate.
"To counter this threat it is important to measure the losses of nitrate and phosphate to water resources on a large commercial dairy farm and development management practices to minimises these losses from free draining soils above sensitive aquifers."
The farm will provide an opportunity to use the latest environmental monitoring technologies to provide reliable information on the leaching losses of N and P from fertilisers and farm dairy effluent under irrigated conditions.
The research project will assist dairy farmers, consulting officers and farm advisers with practical and effective farm management practices to improve productivity with minimal impact on the environment.
Ends
For more information contact Dr Jim Barnett, NZ Dairying Research Institute, Tel 06-350-4649 or Kevin Steel, Sustainable Farming Fund, Tel 04-460-8780
Contact for Enquiries
Fund Administrator
Sustainable Farming Fund
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
Tel: 0800 008 333
Fax: 04 894 0746
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