AgYields database

Professor Derrick Moot (Lincoln University), in collaboration with others, has built a national forage database – AgYields. AgYields will be a central repository for all pasture and crop yield data collected in New Zealand. With easy access and regularly updates, AgYields is suitable for farmers, rural professionals, students and scientists. Data is being collected from a number of research and farm locations  and will be inputted into the AgYields database. In time, AgYields will also provide guidelines for standardising future data collection, and enhancing New Zealand’s livestock and crop production systems.

Modelling legume yield

A key part of Hill Country Futures is answering questions around legume forages’ impact on production and the environment to provide resilience to climate change, minimisze nutrient leaching and maintain soil carbon. To do this, Prof. Derrick Moot and Dr Edmar Teixeira (Plant & Food Research) have developed several models with different levels of complexity. The simplest equation predicts farm yields based on local temperature and rainfall data. In contrast, the APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) Lucerne model provides a research tool to inform policy makers of the impacts of growing legume monocultures on soil nutrient, water and carbon changes over time. The aim of these models is to ensure that any recommended practice changes on-farm as a result of the forage work is not detrimental to environmental outcomes and are resilient to climate change.  

The soil and moisture temperature data collected by Maanaki Whenua – Landcare are also helping to inform decision making around ‘what plant where’.

Listening to hill country farmers tell their story

We have had the privilege of listening to almost 300 farmers and others connected to hill country farming. They told us of their hopes, challenges and vision for the future of the hill country. From these interviews, we have produced a series of articles (Farmer Perspective series) that provide insights into some of the sector’s biggest issues identified during these interviews.

• Barriers and opportunities for on-farm environmental action
• Regenerative agriculture
• Economic diversification and resilience
• The next generation of farmers: succession
• The future of farming: Farmer vision for 2030

Jacqui and Dan Cottrell’s 600 ha sheep and beef farm near Taihape is a trial site for the programme. They have sensors installed on their land that record micro-indicators, such as soil temperature and moisture soil temperature.   Working in partnership with Dr Nathan Odgers, this research will help farmers quantify key soil and terrain features to enable robust decision making on the most suitable locations and potential benefits of introducing forage legumes.

Matt Iremonger is the general manager of the Willesden Farm on Banks Peninsula, which is a 5500 ha sheep and beef property. One of the projects on the farm is led by Prof. Derrick Moot. This research is comparing pasture growth at two locations, one on an improved area with lucerne and the other on an unimproved pasture of mainly weed grasses with a little ryegrass and white clover. Harvests were taken in May, September and December 2019 and January 2020. Over this period, the improved lucerne pasture had accumulated 14 tDM/Ha – more than twice the 5.4 tDM/ha for the unimproved pasture.