The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Opinion: Reusing cow urine as foliar fertiliser

By Kevin Calvert
Otago Daily Times·
14 Mar, 2018 09:08 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Indian agricultural scientists have published research saying diluted cow urine is nature's best foliar fertiliser. Photo / ODT File

Indian agricultural scientists have published research saying diluted cow urine is nature's best foliar fertiliser. Photo / ODT File

It is well recognised that when soil conditions are not conducive to good growth, foliar fertilisation has a positive part to play in keeping up plant nutrition.

By watering the leaves with a dilute solution of small fertiliser molecules, aided with a little wetting agent, those same fertilisers can be absorbed through both the waxy cuticle and the stomata, and they will keep the plant growing when the soil is too cold, dry or toxic.

That same absorption is enhanced when it is warm and wet, the stomata are wide open, and growth is unimpeded.

However, Indian agricultural scientists have published research saying diluted cow urine is nature's best foliar fertiliser.

It not only has the big three — nitrogen; phosphate and potash, in pretty much the right ratios — but also has so many other minor organic nutrients in just the right sizes to slip through the plants' defences, even when it is so dry the cuticle has hardened to protect against desiccation.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, modern dairying has created a more innovative and labour-saving technology use this product.

The K-Line irrigation system, and distribution over wide areas by means of low-cost automatic distribution valves to give timed applications over several different lines of irrigation pods, has allowed the dairy industry to apply its waste water out over pasture at rates as low as one millimetre per application.

Even on an intermittent rainy day, such a small amount would never hit the ground.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The problem is that dairy shed effluent is too thick with manure and too weak in urine content to be directly applied in such away.

The new kid on the block has to be ''green wash''.

Driving the backing gate with a water motor and washing down the yard with the exit water jetted out the behind the gate avoids teat contamination and means for a large herd the solids can be filtered from the water and the liquid reused two to three times per milking.

It is now green, but it is allowed by the authorities, and saves water use by two-thirds.

Discover more

Listen: Greenpeace report does not apply to NZ farming

06 Mar 12:46 AM

Vandals drill holes in irrigator tyres

07 Mar 01:30 AM
Agribusiness

Putting NZ on the path to zero carbon

08 Mar 04:00 PM

Wayne Bennett: Lifetime passion for the natural world

12 Mar 08:30 PM

It concentrates the urine content by about three times, and that puts it close to 1%, and that makes cow urine the best foliar fertiliser.

On that first sunny day near the end of winter, when the air temperature gets above 10degC, the leaves are ready to percolate into action when the roots are not.

If you have no shed effluent on hand, make up some very dilute urea solution of about 1%, crank up the K-line, keep it below 2mm of application, and you will be surprised.

- Kevin Calvert is a research chemist in Invercargill

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

07 Jul 04:25 AM
The Country

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

07 Jul 03:57 AM
The Country

'Dearly loved' 21yo killed in Stewart Island hunting incident

07 Jul 01:41 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

07 Jul 04:25 AM

The winners will be celebrated at Toitoi Hawke’s Bay Arts and Events Centre on July 31.

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

07 Jul 03:57 AM
'Dearly loved' 21yo killed in Stewart Island hunting incident

'Dearly loved' 21yo killed in Stewart Island hunting incident

07 Jul 01:41 AM
The Country: 2025 Young Farmer of the Year, Hugh Jackson

The Country: 2025 Young Farmer of the Year, Hugh Jackson

07 Jul 01:39 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP