Catchment studies

Losses of nutrients from farming systems is a loss to the farmer but more importantly it may be a bigger cost to the environment. Because water bodies are far more sensitive to nutrient inputs than soils preventing significant amounts of nutrients and bacteria getting into streams and rivers is essential.

LRS has been instrumental in measuring these losses under flood irrigation and has helped farmers and regulatory bodies show how these can be prevented.

Publication

LRS has also used these to good effect to measure nutrient losses and this data has been used in Overseer, the leading budget nutrient program used in NZ. Another tool in the shed to help preserve NZ's environmental image.

Land Research Services

Environment protection is now regarded as a cornerstone for NZ's primary production systems because of the standards demanded by overseas buyers and the premiums earnt on this basis.

LRS has been instrumental in creating information to assist farmers and research groups to better manage our production systems, safeguarding the environment and preserving soil quality.

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Leaching studies

Lysimeters are essentially encased columns of soil that are used to measure what nutrients are leaching or draining  through the soil from rainfall and irrigation. Nitrate is the molecule of most interest as this is highly mobile and is an indicator of decreasing water quality.  Publication

Can we help you monitor an environmental problem or test a solution that you have developed?

We can make sure that the information we supply is unbiased and uninfluenced by other interest groups or organisations so you can sure of its independence.