Tararua dairy farmers Thomas and Jennifer Read with their children Annabelle, Eleanor and Jonathan. Photo / Brad Hanson
Tararua dairy farmers Thomas and Jennifer Read with their children Annabelle, Eleanor and Jonathan. Photo / Brad Hanson
A project helping to improve water quality in the Tararua District has been recognised with an award.
The Plantain Project, led by DairyNZ, won the team and collaboration award at the Primary Industries New Zealand Awards last week.
DairyNZ sustainable dairy general manager Dr David Burger says it’s great to see this wonderful community project acknowledged in such a high-profile way.
“We want to congratulate everyone involved for their hard work and commitment to caring for the environment and making this project a success.”
He says the game-changing project has community at its heart.
“With dairy farmers, community members, iwi, DairyNZ and partners working together to reduce the environmental footprint in the district.”
Through the project, 88 dairy farmers in the district now have plantain on their farms and what they’re learning is being shared with other farmers.
There are 11 partner farmers who have case studies and monitoring of plantain effects carried out on their farms and 24 project events held over the last two years to share project knowledge with farmers and the community.
More than 3000 hectares of land has plantain planted in mixed pastures and 104 hectares of plantain crop.
The Plantain Project supports dairy farmers in the Tararua District to understand and adopt the grazing herb plantain as it helps improve water quality by reducing nitrogen leaching in waterways.
A dairy cow grazing the nutritious leafy herb plantain, proven to reduce nitrogen loss from dairy farms.
“The impact of the Tararua project as a blueprint for farmers to take up plantain in catchments nationwide cannot be understated,” David says.
“Research shows Ecotain plantain in pastures can reduce nitrogen leaching from dairy farms by 20 to 60 percent. Plantain also has the potential to reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions.”
DairyNZ partners in the Tararua project with Agricom, MPI, Fonterra and Nestlé. Delivery partners include AgResearch, Horizons and Massey University. The work is part of broader dairy sector commitments, programmes and on-farm work to reduce footprint.
“Farmers care about their local waterways and the Tararua Plantain Project also sees farmers monitor their streams to understand ecosystem health and where to focus their environmental work,” David says.
Plantain use is predicted to lead to flow-on benefits to national and regional economies and to save farmers more than $1 billion per decade.
The Tararua Plantain Project has helped inspire a national DairyNZ-led Plantain Potency and Practice Programme, with industry, government and farmers continuing to work together to research the effects of plantain and support farmers to successfully adopt it on farms.
The national programme’s farm trial research at Massey University has shown Ecotain plantain can reduce nitrogen leaching from dairy farms by 20 to 60 per cent, helping to reduce nitrogen losses to waterways.
A trial being held at a farm at Lincoln University in Canterbury, on lighter soils under irrigation, is showing similar trends.
The programme will develop and tailor advice for farmers in other areas, including looking at the effects of different soil and climate conditions.
On its Facebook page, DairyNZ posted a “huge congratulations” to the project team and Tararua farmers for the award.
The post also said that alongside quantified gains in water quality, the project seeks to increase farm business and community resilience across all 265 Tararua dairy farms as a collective.
Wairarapa MP Kieran McAnulty posted his congratulations on his Facebook page, saying it is “so good to see their hard work and teamwork across the Tararua District and beyond being recognised”.
