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I have just returned from the Fertiliser and Lime Research Centre Nutrient Loss Mitigations for Compliance in Agriculture conference. What a whirlwind three days, with presenters covering recent research, technology and international case studies from Denmark, Ireland and Australia.
Several sessions looked at the benefits of constructed treatment wetlands, highlighting benefits (reducing phosphorous and nitrogen output) but also some concerns, for example, the greenhouse gasses that can be emitted from these systems. Rebecca Eivers from Streamlined Environmental gave a presentation on a component of her recent PhD, which you may be interested to search and read, as some of her work clearly outlines what system is required for each purpose (shallow macrophyte stage for nutrient removal etc).
I particularly liked the quote from John-Paul Praat (Ground Truth Ltd) who said, “Environmental planning is not a weekend activity”. Clearly, the modern farmer needs to incorporate environmental considerations into their daily businesses, undertaking both planning and recording of their actions. It is evident that this is becoming more common, but that there is still plenty of future work and research to do for mitigating contaminant loss in agriculture.
There are lots of events coming up (see full details below) that ORC is supporting in Feb and March, including Beef + Lamb NZ forestry events, Dairy NZ N-Leaching workshops, farm foresters field days and the Wanaka Show. Safe to say it's going to be nice to spend some time away from the office.
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