A survey of dairy cow wintering practices in Canterbury, New Zealand

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1323 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Edwards ◽  
K. Mashlan ◽  
D. E. Dalley ◽  
J. B. Pinxterhuis

Low pasture growth rates in the South Island of New Zealand dictate the use of grazed crops and stored supplements over winter to feed dairy cows. However, grazed crops represent a significant risk for nutrient loss. Little is known about the extent of different wintering practices. The aim of the present research was to document the prevailing winter management practices in Canterbury, allowing changes in management to be tracked in the future. A telephone survey of 238 dairy farms in Canterbury (20% of the total 1208 farms) was completed in March 2016. Results indicated a heavy reliance on wintering off the milking platform (93% of the cow.weeks), mostly on support blocks managed by the dairy farmer (68%). Twenty-five per cent of the wintering occurred on a farm not owned or managed by the dairy farmer, commonly on arable farms. Kale (46%) and fodder beet (40%) were the most common winter crops fed to cows. Optimising kale and fodder beet management represents a significant opportunity to improve nutrient management and reduce nutrient loss from grazed crops.

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.K. Hartz

Nutrient loss from commercial vegetable fields has become a significant environmental issue in all the major vegetable-producing regions of the United States. Growers are facing potentially disruptive regulations aimed at improving the quality of both surface and ground water. Significant improvement in nutrient management will be required to meet this regulatory challenge. This paper discusses five practical, low-cost nutrient best management practices (BMPs). These BMPs are widely applicable, relatively inexpensive to implement, and can dramatically reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loss from vegetable fields. However, even with careful application of these BMPs, runoff and leachate from vegetable fields may periodically exceed environmental water quality standards, which are very stringent.


2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 230-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Lea-Cox ◽  
David S. Ross ◽  
K. Marc Teffeau

Abstract Many states throughout the United States are now concerned about the impact of non-point source pollution on the declining quality of water in their watersheds. In 1998, the state of Maryland adopted one of the toughest nutrient management planning laws in the nation, requiring virtually all agricultural operations to write and implement nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) based management plans by December 31, 2002. The nursery and greenhouse industries are faced with a complicated task to write these nutrient management plans, since these operations grow a large number of plant species utilizing a range of fertilization and irrigation strategies. A nutrient management planning strategy has been identified that will provide an assessment of nutrient loss potential from a wide variety of production scenarios, identify the specific factors that contribute most to nutrient leaching and runoff, and enable targeted best management practices to be implemented to reduce the risk of nutrient run-off.


2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. P. Gourley ◽  
J. M. Powell ◽  
W. J. Dougherty ◽  
D. M. Weaver

Dairy farming in Australia continues to intensify. Increased stocking rates have resulted in increased milk production per ha, but have also required greater inputs of purchased feed and fertiliser. The imbalance between nutrient inputs, primarily as feed and fertiliser, and nutrient outputs, in milk and livestock, has resulted in significant nutrient accumulation on dairy farms and, consequently, a greater risk of nutrient loss to the environment. Nutrient budgeting is a technique used to quantify or predict nutrient deficits or surpluses, either at a whole-farm or field scale, in an attempt to improve nutrient use efficiency and reduce nutrient losses from agriculture. A broad range of nutrient budgeting approaches are used internationally, and depending on their purpose, they vary from the very simple to the very complex. Nutrient budgeting has been widely used to assist on-farm nutrient management decisions, in research to identify major nutrient pools, transformations and losses, to enable farmers to access cost-sharing support from governments, and in some countries as a major regulatory tool. The changing nature of Australian dairy operations, the increasing societal pressure on the farming community to reduce nutrient losses to water and air, and the need to provide evidence that farm practices are meeting environmental standards, justifies the need for improved nutrient management practices on Australian dairy farms. This paper describes different types of nutrient budgeting approaches used internationally and assesses the benefits of developing a practical, scientifically rigorous and nationally standardised nutrient budgeting approach for the Australian dairy industry.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1001-1014
Author(s):  
Sulaiman & Sadiq

The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse during 2017 and 2018 growing seasons to evaluate the impact of the shading and various nutrition programs on mitigating heat stress, reducing the use of chemical minerals, improving the reproductive growth and yield of tomato plant. Split-plot within Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was conducted in this study. Shading factor was allocated in the main plots and the nutrition programs distributed randomly in the subplots. Results indicate that shading resulted in the decrease of daytime temperature by 5.7˚C as an average for both seasons; thus a significant increasing was found in leaf contents of macro nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium), and micro nutrients (Iron, Zinc and Boron), except the Iron content in 2018 growing season. Furthermore, shading improved significantly the reproductive growth and tomato yield. Among the plant nutrition programs, the integrated nutrient management (INM) including the application of organic substances, bio inoculum of AMF and 50% of the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers; lead to the enhancement of nutrients content, reproductive characteristics and plant yield. Generally, combination of both shading and INM showed positive effects on plants nutrient status and persisting balance on tomato flowering growth and fruits yield.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMBORLANG K. WANNIANG ◽  
A. K. SINGH

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2011 on experimental farm of the College of Post Graduate Studies (CAU–Imphal), Umiam (Meghalaya) to evaluate the effect of integration of green manuring, FYM and fertilizers as integrated nutrient management (INM) practices on growth and developmental behaviour of quality protein maize cultivar QPM 1. The data revealed that comparatively higher amount of primary nutrients were added in green manured maize plots in comparison to non green manured treatments. Green manuring also left a positive response on plant height, CGR, RGR leaf area, and dry matter accumulation in plants though the difference between green manured and non-green manured treatments was at par. Treatments 75 % RDF + 5 t FYM ha-1, 50 % RDF + 7.5 t FYM ha-1, 100 % RDF ha-1 and 75 % RDF + 2.5 t FYM ha-1 recorded significantly higher values of all the above said growth parameters over 50 % RDF + 5 t FYM ha-1 and control treatments. At all stages of observations, the maximum dry matter was associated with RDF (recommended doses of fertilizers) which was at par with 75 % RDF + 5 t FYM ha-1, but significantly higher over the plant dry weight recorded from all remaining treatments. A Significant difference in CGR at 30 – 60 and 60 – 90 DAS stage and in RGR at 90 DAS - harvest stage was observed due to various combinations of recommended dose of fertilizer with different doses of FYM. Number of days taken to attain the stages of 50% tasselling, silking and maturity did not differ significantly due to green manuring. However, treatment 75 % RDF + 5 t FYM ha-1 took significantly lesser number of days for these stages than other treatment combinations. The superiority of the treatment 75 % RDF + 5 t FYM ha-1 indicated a possibility of substituting 25% of RDF with 5 t FYM ha-1 without any loss in dry matter accumulation in plants of the quality protein hybrid maize in mid-hill ecosystems of Meghalaya.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 777
Author(s):  
Erythrina Erythrina ◽  
Arif Anshori ◽  
Charles Y. Bora ◽  
Dina O. Dewi ◽  
Martina S. Lestari ◽  
...  

In this study, we aimed to improve rice farmers’ productivity and profitability in rainfed lowlands through appropriate crop and nutrient management by closing the rice yield gap during the dry season in the rainfed lowlands of Indonesia. The Integrated Crop Management package, involving recommended practices (RP) from the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD), were compared to the farmers’ current practices at ten farmer-participatory demonstration plots across ten provinces of Indonesia in 2019. The farmers’ practices (FP) usually involved using old varieties in their remaining land and following their existing fertilizer management methods. The results indicate that improved varieties and nutrient best management practices in rice production, along with water reservoir infrastructure and information access, contribute to increasing the productivity and profitability of rice farming. The mean rice yield increased significantly with RP compared with FP by 1.9 t ha–1 (ranges between 1.476 to 2.344 t ha–1), and net returns increased, after deducting the cost of fertilizers and machinery used for irrigation supplements, by USD 656 ha–1 (ranges between USD 266.1 to 867.9 ha–1) per crop cycle. This represents an exploitable yield gap of 37%. Disaggregated by the wet climate of western Indonesia and eastern Indonesia’s dry climate, the RP increased rice productivity by 1.8 and 2.0 t ha–1, with an additional net return gain per cycle of USD 600 and 712 ha–1, respectively. These results suggest that there is considerable potential to increase the rice production output from lowland rainfed rice systems by increasing cropping intensity and productivity. Here, we lay out the potential for site-specific variety and nutrient management with appropriate crop and supplemental irrigation as an ICM package, reducing the yield gap and increasing farmers’ yield and income during the dry season in Indonesia’s rainfed-prone areas.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 859
Author(s):  
Geng Guo ◽  
Xiao Li ◽  
Xi Zhu ◽  
Yanyin Xu ◽  
Qiao Dai ◽  
...  

Although forest conversions have long been a focus in carbon (C) research, the relationship between soil erosion and the dynamic change of soil organic carbon (SOC) has not been well-quantified. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of converting CBF (coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests) to economic forests, including CF (chestnut forest), HF (hawthorn forest), and AF (apple forest), on the soil structure and nutrient loss in the Huaibei Rocky Mountain Areas, China. A 137Cs tracer method was used to provide soil erosion data in order to quantify the loss of aggregate-associated SOC. The results showed that forest management operations caused macro-aggregates to decrease by 1.69% in CF, 4.52% in AF, and 3.87% in HF. Therefore, the stability of aggregates was reduced. The SOC contents in each aggregate size decreased significantly after forest conversion, with the largest decreases occurring in AF. We quantified the loss of 0.15, 0.38, and 0.31 Mg hm−2 of aggregate-associated SOC after conversion from CBF to CF, AF, and HF, respectively. These results suggest that forest management operations have a negative impact on soil quality and fertility. CF has better vegetation coverage and less human interference, making it more prominent among the three economic forests species. Therefore, when developing forest management operations, judicious selection of tree varieties and appropriate management practices are extremely critical. In addition, measures should be taken to increase surface cover to reduce soil erosion and achieve sustainable development of economic forests.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith N. Khaembah ◽  
Shane Maley ◽  
Mike George ◽  
Emmanuel Chakwizira ◽  
John de Ruiter ◽  
...  

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