Feeding the world’s growing population

New Zealand’s reputation as a quality food producer is growing.

Optimising food production

Over the next 50 years farmers around the world will need to produce more food than has been grown over the past 10,000 years.

Best use from a limited resource

Fertiliser helps farmers produce food efficiently by replenishing the soil. But fertiliser needs to be used responsibly.

Responsible and sustainable nutrient management

The Fertiliser Association invests in research and tools to ensure farm profitability while minimising nutrient losses to the environment.

The Fertiliser Association of New Zealand promotes and encourages responsible and scientifically-based nutrient management.

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Using Fluxmeters to measure Cd drainage in cropping system

Col Gray, AgResearch, March 2021

Introduction

The industry continues to support the Cadmium Management Group in developing our scientific understanding and knowledge of soil cadmium. Our understanding of very gradual soil accumulation relies on the modelling and assessment of soil fluxes, including potential leaching losses.

The modelled losses require more validation and a study was commissioned to analyse archived soil water (drainage) samples to assess cadmium losses from cropping soils.

The measured cadmium values were compared to the estimates calculated using the methods used in modelling. From the seven sampling sites, results were generally below the detection limit. Cadmium in drainage was only occasionally detected from two sites and no detection occurred at four other sites. Drainage from one site (with six fluxmeters) showed very low cadmium leaching loss, ranging from 0.06 - 0.18 μg/L (millionths of a gram per litre). On this one site where cadmium was detected in drainage water, the levels were low, but similar to the estimates expected based on the soil cadmium levels. However, there was insufficient data from these assessments to make a robust evaluation of the modelled leaching losses.

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Download report

Cadmium Balance Model Decision Support Tool (CadBal): A web-based tool to help land managers make decisions on how to manage cadmium accumulation in agricultural soils.


The Fertiliser Association of New Zealand and Dairy NZ funded development of the Nutrient Management Adviser Certification Programme (NMACP). This industry-wide certification aims to ensure that advisers have the learning, experience and capability to give sound nutrient advice.

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28 June 2023

Dairy farmers milking cows on a farm area of more than 20 hectares are required to record synthetic nitrogen use on their dairy platform land, including a zero-kg record if no synthetic nitrogen is used. The regulations require data to be submitted by 31 July each year for the preceding year ended 30 June. 

14 May 2023

The New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research has published a paper titled Nitrogen fertiliser use in grazed pasture-based systems in New Zealand. The research paper was commissioned by the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand and written by AgReserch senior scientist Colin Gray.


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