Click photo to enlarge
Donaghys Industries production scientist Jurgen Goossens
(left) and purchasing manager Craig Nicholls with a product
designed to enhance the use of nitrogen, which has been
developed by Donaghys and manufactured in Dunedin. Photo by
Jane Dawber.
The battle for a share of the lucrative greenhouse
gas-reducing nitrogen inhibitor market has just become more
competitive.
Donaghys Industries has released a product it claims allows
plants to use nitrogen fertiliser more effectively.
Unlike other nitrogen-inhibiting products, which target the
nitrogen cycle in the soil, the Dunedin-manufactured LessN is
touted to help plants make faster and better use of nitrogen
fertiliser, and reduce a farm's carbon footprint by 10% to
20%.
The market for nitrogen inhibitors has become a focal point
for agricultural servicing companies because of concerns
about nitrogen leeching into waterways and emissions of
greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide.
Donaghys chief executive, Jeremy Silva, said when
nitrogen-based urea fertiliser was applied to pasture, up to
50% could be lost to the environment.
But trials with LessN show more than 95% of what was applied
was used by the pasture.
This meant half the usual amount of nitrogen could be
applied, but 40% more pasture grown and at a faster rate than
if traditional urea application rates were used.
Mr Silva said this was because of LessN's different mode of
action.
It used four families of microbes selected for their plant
growth qualities and two organic compounds which aided the
uptake and use of nitrogen.
The liquid was mixed with urea and sprayed on to pasture at a
rate of three litres a hectare.
Mr Silva said LessN manufacturing was recently moved from
Christchurch to Dunedin because of space availability and the
ability of staff.
The product was being trialled in the United Kingdom, North
America, Europe and Australia, and was about to start in
South Africa and Asia.
Internationally, Mr Silva estimated the potential market at
$6 billion, and if the trials proved successful and export
orders flowed as a result, he said the Dunedin factory would
be expanded and new jobs would be created.
This was another example of research into products aimed at
reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, which
accounted for about 50% of New Zealand's total greenhouse gas
emissions.
Mark Aspin, the manager of the pastoral greenhouse gas
research consortium, told a Science Media Centre telephone
conference this week that while work was proceeding to find a
vaccine or genetic solution to reduce methane from livestock,
such a tool could be up to 10 years away.
The consortium, made up of farming groups and research
organisations, has spent $24 million since 2002, and was
spending between $5 million and $6 million a year on projects
designed to reduce emissions by 20%.
Mr Aspin said while vaccines and technology using gene
mapping were an answer, those solutions had to be practical
and fit into a farm system.
Landcare Research scientist Adrian Walcroft has developed
biofilters that sit over dairy shed effluent ponds and remove
methane gas, saying farms milking 800 to 1000 cows could use
methane harvesting technology to generate electricity but it
was not viable for smaller farms.
