Manawatu cropping farmers and industry personnel have the opportunity to learn more about environmental risks and how to manage them at a workshop run by FAR and HortNZ in Palmerston North (Tuesday 31 May).
Diana Mathers from FAR and Angela Halliday from HortNZ will be joined by a number of researchers to present on the latest environmental projects being undertaken in the Manawatu.
Plant & Food researcher Matt Norris will discuss the results to date from the fluxmeter project in the Manawatu, as it measures nutrient leaching losses on cropping farms in the region.
This is the first update for growers since the fluxmeters were installed in the spring of 2014.
Soil erosion and the “Don’t Muddy the Waters” project will be briefed by Andrew Barber from Agrilink, and Dan Bloomer will discuss the latest results on the work on drainage in the Horowhenua.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is currently undertaking the ‘Maximising the value of Irrigation’ programme on a number of focus farm sites in Canterbury, Hawkes Bay and the Manawatu). Carolyn Hedley from LandCare Research will discuss the new sensor technologies and high resolution senor data involved in the precision agriculture case study, and the results so far.
Following a number of Farm Environment Plan workshops run by FAR and ECan in, this event aims to remind farmers in the region to be monitoring environmental risks on their farms.
“It is important for farmers to understand the environmental risks on their farms, be they related to their soils and climates or their farm systems. Understanding these risks is the basis of being able to manage them”.