THE dairy industry is set to benefit from a government funded Rural Research and Development for Profit project to improve the efficiency of nitrogen on farms.
Previous research has found small improvements in farm scale nitrogen use efficiency can provide substantial increases in productivity and profit.
This project will be looking for synergies between water and nitrogen inputs, quantifying the rate and timing of nitrogen supply through mineralisation; assessing the cost effectiveness of enhanced efficiency fertilisers and evaluating new digital, precision and spatial technologies.
Dairy Australia will receive about $1.5 million from the Australian Government to support nitrogen use efficiency RD&E as part of its involvement in the cross RDC More profit from nitrogen: enhancing the nutrient use efficiency of intensive cropping and pasture systems project.
Dairy is one of four agricultural industries that will share in the $5.8m project, announced Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.
Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday said nitrogen was a significant cost to dairy producers and a significant component of their environmental foot print.
“This project will help producers improve their nutrition management and thus their profitability by increasing the productivity per unit of nitrogen applied,” Mr Halliday said.
“Improved productivity per unit of nitrogen will also result in improved environmental outcomes.”
The project is a partnership between the significant nitrogen-using industries of cotton, dairy, sugar and horticulture. It will be led by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) in conjunction with fellow rural research and development corporations (RDCs) Dairy Australia, Sugar Research Australia and Horticulture Innovation Australia and 15 other research partners.
The project aims to improve the profitability of 600 irrigated cotton growers, 500 dairy farmers, sugar growers and more than 1000 fruit growers. It will also help all four industries to reduce the impact of off-farm nutrients on water quality.
The dairy component of the nitrogen use efficiency project will involve a number of research partners who will contribute an additional $500,000. They are Queensland University of Technology, University of Melbourne, Tasmanian Institute for Agriculture and the NSW Department of Primary Industries.
“Through this joint project, dairy farmers will gain a better understanding of the various influences on nitrogen use efficiency and improved confidence to adopt management practices tailored to their specific pasture requirements – thereby improving nitrogen use efficiency and their profits,” Mr Halliday said.
“Importantly, there is also a strong sustainability component to this project, as more efficient use and management of nitrogen across all of our industries also has significant natural resource benefits – improving soil health, reducing leaching and run-off to creeks and rivers, and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
“This project will deliver a win-win scenario for both growers and our environment.”
The More profit from nitrogen project will run until 2020.
