A new research project managed by the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), co-funded by MAF Sustainable Farming Fund (MAF SFF), FAR, Environment Waikato and Dairy Insight is set to address two important questions:
1. Can maize silage be used to strip nutrients from high nutrient soils?
2. Can we substitute farm dairy effluent (FDE) for manufactured fertiliser on soils with low
nutrient status?
This is one of numerous FAR research projects to be successful in the recent MAF Sustainable Farming Fund (MAF SFF) funding round.
Andrea Pearson, FAR’s Project Manager for maize, says silage crops take up considerable amounts of nutrients and therefore could be used to reduce soil nutrients in overly fertile soils. “This may be the case where effluent has been applied long term to a paddock. On the flip side, farm dairy effluent could be applied to lower nutrient cropping ground, thus reducing the cost of fertiliser inputs to the maize crop.
“Considerable fertiliser nutrients are normally applied to maize crops grown paddocks that have been cropped long term. There is an opportunity to replace this fertiliser with FDE, reducing fertiliser costs for the maize growers while allowing a dairy farmer, particularly one with a high input system, to export excess nutrients off their farm.”
The project is to run for three years, throughout which time a series of field days, workshops and dairy discussion groups will take place in order to deliver project results.
Literature on farm dairy effluent management will also be collated in the form of FAR Arable Updates with project results also added to Dexcel’s resources for dairy farmers. For more information on this project, please contact the Project Manager, Andrea Pearson on 06 870 1250 or 021 764 522.