The Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is delighted to announce the start of three new research projects which are set to benefit New Zealand arable farmers.
These projects, entitled ‘Pest Birds Species in the Landscape’, ‘Reducing N2O Emissions from the Arable Industry through Best Practice’ and ‘Quantifying Soil Carbon Pools in New Zealand Soils’ are the latest line-up of successful applications for FAR in the MAF SFF 2009 funding round.
Introduced bird species, predominantly house sparrow and greenfinch, cause significant damage in cereal, brassica and oil seed crops every year. Loss in cereals is between 5% and 10% nationally ($15 to $30 million) for New Zealand arable growers. This has resulted in growers being unable to grow some crops in specific areas. Loss in vegetable brassicas would be 50% ($20 million) per annum if growers did not net crops. The costs associated with netting are obviously significant. Loss in other forage brassicas (not netted) is approx 25 - 30%.
Populations are increasing on the Canterbury plain (previous studies) as there are plentiful food supplies from arable crops in summer and supplemental feeds being fed to the dairy industry in winter. Nick Pyke says current control and management approaches (apart from netting) are ineffectual often because of a poor understanding of bird behaviour. “An improved understanding of bird behaviour and bird movement will ensure that bird management strategies can be developed to have the greatest effect. The long term objective of the FAR bird management programme is to manage the introduced problem bird species and increase the biodiversity of native birds in the arable farming landscape.”
This project will be managed by FAR’s Chief Executive, Nick Pyke who will work closely with Biodiesel NZ and the NZ Flour Millers Association.
The second project to be managed by Andrea Pearson, FAR Research Coordinator and will focus on reducing N2O emissions from the arable industry.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions contribute to NZ’s greenhouse gas footprint. Agricultural production across our primary industries has been identified as a significant contributor to this N2O footprint. Emissions from cropping soils are often linked to cultivation, irrigation and the use of N fertilisers, all of which are vital to the production of high yielding, high quality arable crops.
The arable industry is taking a proactive approach to address these concerns by seeking to ensure that farmers adopt sustainable crop production systems. Andrea says “Our understanding of the basic science behind N2O emissions has advanced steadily in recent years and factors that influence N2O emissions have been identified for NZ’s agricultural industries. However much of this information is not readily accessible to arable farmers, nor is it in a form that is suitable for immediate application. We propose to fill this gap for the NZ arable industry by simplifying and transferring the key messages from national and international literature to our farmers. Results of the literature review will also guide future research investment in climate change mitigation by the arable industry.”
Managed by FAR Research Co-ordinator Nick Poole, the final in this round of approved projects to date will focus on quantifying soil carbon pools in New Zealand soils.
Soil organic carbon, the major component of soil organic matter, is being examined as a potential sink to mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases. Until recently most studies have focused on determining the total amount of organic carbon present in a soil, however have not attempted to quantify the allocation of carbon to the various different forms. Although total organic carbon provides an important baseline measurement, it does not inform us about the type of organic carbon in the soil, which is vital for assessing the influence of land use on the direction of any induced carbon change. It is now apparent that determining the composition of soil organic carbon can provide a more detailed assessment of the implications of management practices on both the dynamics and functioning of soil carbon. For example, how cultivation might influence soil nitrogen mineralisation in soils may depend on the organic matter pool composition.
A system which has been developed and is being used in Australia allocates soil carbon to four different fractions:
- Plant residues – shoot and root residues >2 mm residing on the soil (surface plant residues) and in the soil (buried plant residues).
- Particulate organic carbon (POC) – individual pieces of plant debris that are smaller than 2 mm but larger than 0.05 mm.
- Humus (HUM) – decomposed materials less than 0.05mm that are dominated by organic molecules stuck to soil minerals
- Recalcitrant organic carbon (ROC) – dominated by pieces of charcoal.
CSIRO Land and Water scientists have now successfully calibrated a variation of the RothC soil carbon model using these defined fractions. A similar model based on these fractions is being used by the Australian Dept of Climate Change to predict the effects of land use change on soil C stocks and identify mitigation options.
The problem is that to define the different fractions requires the use of specialised equipment, which is very labour intensive, time consuming and expensive. It is therefore not readily amenable to the routine analysis of samples derived from farmer fields. However new technology using mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy has been developed (Janik et al., 2007) which would allow rapid assessment of the soil carbon fractions.
FAR is excited that it will be able to deliver these new areas of research to the New Zealand arable industry. Nick Pyke, FAR’s Chief Executive says “The New Zealand arable industry is one of the world leaders in both its practices and performance. It is vital that we continue to conduct research and extension activities, especially in those areas likely to have the largest impact on our industry in the future if we are to remain world leaders.”
Growers will be kept up-to-date on these projects throughout their progression through FAR’s extension activities such as Crop Action, Arable Updates, field days, plus others. FAR also encourages growers to visit the members’ area of the FAR website where they can access all FAR’s latest research results.