New tool for nitrogen efficiency

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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.

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.