17 August 2007 Climate Change Minister applauds inhibitor development at Lincoln University

A “once in a lifetime” breakthrough is how the Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues, David Parker, describes the development of eco-n nitrification inhibitor technology at Lincoln University.

Mr Parker visited Lincoln University’s lysimeter laboratory and dairy farm drainage facilities on 14th August with the developers of eco-n, Professor Keith Cameron and Professor Hong Di, and commented on the “exceptional work” conducted by the University-based Centre for Soil and Environmental Quality.

Discussing the scientists’ research with Lincoln University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr Chris Kirk and Mike Manning and Ron Pellow of Ravensdown, the Minister applauded Professor Cameron and Professor Di and suggested that their research would earn them a Nobel Prize if they were working in the field of physics.

The two scientists showed the Minister results from the use of the inhibitor eco-n on the Lincoln University Dairy Farm where nitrate leaching from urine patches had been reduced by up to 60%, nitrous oxide emissions (a greenhouse gas) had been reduced by about 70% and annual pasture production had increased by over 15%.

Professor Di said that trial work from other parts of New Zealand was showing average reductions in nitrous oxide emissions of about 70% from urine patches in a range of soils from Hamilton to Taupo to Canterbury. Urine patches are the predominant source of nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emissions in grazed pastures.

Ravensdown introduced nitrification inhibitors to farmers with its product eco-n in 2004 and has seen steady increases in interest for the environmental and pasture production opportunities available through eco-n.

“Demand has doubled this year,” said Mr Manning, General Manager Research and Development at Ravensdown, “as dairy farmers seek to increase the efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts of their farm systems.”

Speaking to the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science convention earlier in the day the Minister said that the development of nitrification inhibitors was “standout technology” and showed the efforts underway in New Zealand agriculture to develop solutions to greenhouse gas emissions.

Professor Keith Cameron, Head, Centre for Soil & Environmental Quality, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand