scholarly journals ECONOMICS OF NITROGEN USE IN DAIRYING

Author(s):  
D.A.L. Buxton

During the last 10 to 15 years, the use of fertiliser N at low rates on New Zealand dairy farms has become more popular. There are many ways in which fertiliser N can be used to increase pasture and milkfat production. Five of those options are analysed, viz. I. High rates of N. 2. Bridging a spring feed deficit. 3. Increasing stocking rate. 4. Earlier calving. 5. More cow condition. Research work is finding the best times and rates of application of N. The extra pasture produced must then be utilised to maximise milkfat responses. Trials have shown that the use of high rates of fertiliser N ( > 80 kg N/ha) is unlikely to be profitable on N.Z. dairy farms. N used to enable more cows to be wintered, and then milked in early spring, appears to be very profitable, due to better utilisation of later spring-autumn pasture growth. The other three options are also profitable, but the increase in total farm milkfat production is only 3 to 4%. The options need to be tested more thoroughly with models and grazing experiments.

Author(s):  
S.F. Ledgard ◽  
J.W. Penno ◽  
M.S. Sprosen

Nitrogen (N) balances were constructed for "average" dairy farms in New Zealand, south west England and The Netherlands, and for Dairying Research Corporation (DRC) farmlets varying in stocking rate and use of N fertiliser and maize grain. N surpluses were calculated to indicate the potential impact on the environment and these were compared with measured N losses from the DRC farmlets. On the average New Zealand farm, annual N inputs of 186 kg N/ha/year (mainly from N2 fixation) resulted in N outputs in milk+meat of 55 kg N/ha/year (30% efficiency) and a N surplus of 131 kg N/ha/year. Dutch farms produced 70% more milk/ha but had N inputs of 568 kg/ha, N outputs in produce of 81 kg/ha (14% efficiency) and a N surplus of 487 kg/ha. English farms were intermediate. In the DRC farmlets, applying fertiliser N at 400 kg N/ha/year increased N surpluses and nitrate leaching by 3-4 fold, resulting in nitrate-N concentrations in drainage of 2.5× the recommended maximum for drinking water. The most efficient farm system received no N fertiliser and was highly stocked (3.3 Friesian cows/ha) for very high pasture utilisation. This resulted in similar milk production/ha to Dutch farms (with 1/3 the N inputs) and a 45% efficiency of conversion of N inputs from N2 fixation into milk and meat products. Keywords: dairy farm, nitrate leaching, nitrogen balance, nitrogen fertiliser, stocking rate


Author(s):  
C. Feyter ◽  
M.B. O'Connor ◽  
R.J. Fris ◽  
B. Addison

Waikato dary pastures were developed through large inputs of superphosphate and potassium chloride. Many farmers have continued to apply similarly large amounts of fertiliser in post-development situations. Trials to study the effects on the production of dairy pastures to restricting or stopping fertiliser application were started in 1978 and have continued to the present. The tria1s were conducted on 6 commercial dairy farms throughout the Waikato region selected for high milkfat production and past fertiliser applications. Each trlal included 3 fertiliser treatments: 1000, 500 and 0 kg fertiliser (30% potassic superphosphate)/ha/year. Pasture production was estimated through a trimming technique designed to cause minimal interference with management and use of the experimental paddock by the farmer and in later years through calibrated visual assessments and electronic probe readings of pasture dry matter. Pastures receiving 500 kg fertiliser/ha/year produced on average 2.5% less over an 8 year period than pastures receiving 1,000 kg fertiliser. Applying no fertiliser caused a slow reduction in pasture production in 3 of the trials but an immediate reduction of more than 10% in the other three trials. The latter effect could be partly explained by low soil test levels and high stocking rate. Keywords: Yellow-brown loams, gley soils, maintenance fertiliser, phosphorus, potassium.


Author(s):  
Brent Riley

I farm in partnership with Michelle, leasing a 218 ha dairy farm and adjoining 60 ha runoff in Collingwood, Western Golden Bay. We wintered 810 cows and 110 yearlings on the property which comprises 35% alluvial river flats and 65% pakihi. We are also 20% shareholders in a family-owned company that operates four dairy farms, one of them being the farm that we lease, the other three being run by my two brothers and their families, and my parents. One of these we have visited at Matariki on the field trip. We run a high stocking rate system of 3.6 cows/ha with high inputs and produced 245 000 kg milksolids last season. We farm in a wet environment, although we do get some sunny days. So far this season we have had 110 inches of rain, up on the average of 100 inches. Fortunately, we live on the dry side of the valley! I hope to give you an insight into farming pakihi; the process we went through to develop and establish pasture from scrub; and the changes that have occurred with time on this soil type.


Author(s):  
J.G. Jago ◽  
M.W. Woolford

There is a growing shortage of labour within the dairy industry. To address this the industry needs to attract more people and/or reduce the labour requirements on dairy farms. Current milk harvesting techniques contribute to both the labour requirements and the current labour shortage within the industry as the process is labour-intensive and necessitates long and unsociable working hours. Automated milking systems (AMS) have been in operation, albeit on a small scale, on commercial farms in Europe for a decade and may have the potential to address labour issues within the New Zealand dairy industry. A research programme has been established (The Greenfield Project) which aims to determine the feasibility of automated milking under New Zealand dairying conditions. A Fullwoods MERLIN AMS has been installed on a protoype farmlet and is successfully milking a small herd of 41 cows. Progress from the prototype Greenfields system offers considerable potential for implementing AMS in extensive grazing systems. Keywords: automated milking systems, dairy cattle, grazing, labour


Author(s):  
Cecile De Klein ◽  
Jim Paton ◽  
Stewart Ledgard

Strategic de-stocking in winter is a common management practice on dairy farms in Southland, New Zealand, to protect the soil against pugging damage. This paper examines whether this practice can also be used to reduce nitrate leaching losses. Model analyses and field measurements were used to estimate nitrate leaching losses and pasture production under two strategic de-stocking regimes: 3 months off-farm or 5 months on a feed pad with effluent collected and applied back to the land. The model analyses, based on the results of a long-term farmlet study under conventional grazing and on information for an average New Zealand farm, suggested that the 3- or 5-month de-stocking could reduce nitrate leaching losses by about 20% or 35-50%, respectively compared to a conventional grazing system. Field measurements on the Taieri Plain in Otago support these findings, although the results to date are confounded by drought conditions during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. The average nitrate concentration of the drainage water of a 5-month strategic de-stocking treatment was about 60% lower than under conventional grazing. Pasture production of the 5-month strategic de-stocking regime with effluent return was estimated based on data for apparent N efficiency of excreta patches versus uniformlyspread farm dairy effluent N. The results suggested that a strategic de-stocking regime could increase pasture production by about 2 to 8%. A cost/ benefit analysis of the 5-month de-stocking system using a feed pad, comparing additional capital and operational costs with additional income from a 5% increase in DM production, show a positive return on capital for an average New Zealand dairy farm. This suggests that a strategic destocking system has good potential as a management tool to reduce nitrate leaching losses in nitrate sensitive areas whilst being economically viable, particularly on farms where an effluent application system or a feed pad are already in place. Keywords: dairying, feed pads, nitrate leaching, nitrogen efficiency, productivity, strategic de-stocking


Author(s):  
W.M. Williams ◽  
L.B. Anderson ◽  
B.M. Cooper

In evaluations of clover performances on summer-dry Himatangi sandy soil, it was found that none could match lucerne over summer. Emphasis was therefore placed on production in autumn-winter- early spring when lucerne growth was slow. Evaluations of some winter annual clover species suggested that Trifolium spumosum, T. pallidum, T. resupinatum, and T. vesiculosum would justify further investigation, along with T. subterraneum which is already used in pastures on this soil type. Among the perennial clover species, Kenya white clover (7'. semipilosum) showed outstanding recovery from drought and was the only species to produce significantly in autumn. However, it failed to grow in winter-early spring. Within red clover, materials of New Zealand x Moroccan origin substantially outproduced the commercial cultivars. Within white clover, material from Israel, Italy and Lebanon, as well as progeny of a selected New Zealand plant, showed more rapid recovery from drought stress and subsequently better winter growth than New Zealand commercial material ('Grasslands Huia'). The wider use of plant material of Mediterranean origin and of plants collected in New Zealand dryland pastures is advocated in development of clover cultivars for New Zealand dryland situations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1139-1148
Author(s):  
Othman & et al.

The research work was conducted in Izra’a Research station, which affiliated to the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), during the growing seasons (2016 – 2017; 2017 – 2018), in order to evaluate the response of two durum wheat verities (Douma3 and Cham5) and two bread wheat varieties (Douma4 and Cham6) to Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a full package compared with Conventional Tillage system (CT) under rainfed condition using lentils (Variety Edleb3) in the applied crop rotation. The experiment was laid according to split-split RCBD with three replications. The average of biological yield, grain yield,  rainwater use efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency was significantly higher during the first growing season, under conservation agriculture in the presence of crop rotation, in the variety Douma3 (7466 kg. ha-1, and 4162kg. ha-1, 19.006 kg ha-1 mm-1,  39.62 kg N m-2respectively). The two varieties Douma3 and Cham6 are considered more responsive to conservation agriculture system in the southern region of Syria, because they recorded the highest grain yields (2561, 2385 kg ha-1 respectively) compared with the other studied varieties (Cham5 and Douma4) (1951 and 1724 kg ha-1 respectively). They also exhibited the highest values of both rainwater and nitrogen use efficiency.


Author(s):  
James Meffan

This chapter discusses the history of multicultural and transnational novels in New Zealand. A novel set in New Zealand will have to deal with questions about cultural access rights on the one hand and cultural coverage on the other. The term ‘transnational novel’ gains its relevance from questions about cultural and national identity, questions that have particularly exercised nations formed from colonial history. The chapter considers novels that demonstrate and respond to perceived deficiencies in wider discourses of cultural and national identity by way of comparison between New Zealand and somewhere else. These include Amelia Batistich's Another Mountain, Another Song (1981), Albert Wendt's Sons for the Return Home (1973) and Black Rainbow (1992), James McNeish's Penelope's Island (1990), Stephanie Johnson's The Heart's Wild Surf (2003), and Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip (2006).


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1073
Author(s):  
Claudia Campillo-Cora ◽  
Laura Rodríguez-González ◽  
Manuel Arias-Estévez ◽  
David Fernández-Calviño ◽  
Diego Soto-Gómez

Chromium is an element that possess several oxidation states and can easily pass from one to another, so its behavior in soils is very complex. For this reason, determining its fate in the environment can be difficult. In this research work we tried to determine which factors affect the chromium fractionation in natural soils, conditioning chromium mobility. We paid special attention to the parent material. For this purpose, extraction experiments were carried out on spiked soils incubated for 50–60 days, using H2O, CaCl2 and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). The most efficient extraction rate in all soils was achieved using water, followed by CaCl2 and DTPA. We obtained models with an adjusted R2 of 0.8097, 0.8471 and 0.7509 for the H2O Cr, CaCl2 Cr and DTPA Cr respectively. All models were influenced by the amount of chromium added and the parent material: amphibolite and granite influenced the amount of H2O Cr extracted, and schist affected the other two fractions (CaCl2 and DTPA). Soil texture also played an important role in the chromium extraction, as well as the amounts of exchangeable aluminum and magnesium, and the bioavailable phosphorus. We concluded that it is possible to make relatively accurate predictions of the behavior of the different Cr fractions studied, so that optimized remediation strategies for chromium-contaminated soils can be designed on the basis of a physicochemical soil characterization.


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