Vegetable Production Nitrogen Management

MPI S3F21124 2022-2023

Filming for an informational video on soil sampling – with Extremekid Productions

The project is built on the previous Future Proofing Vegetable Production project and presents a series of on-line workshops and tutorials and make the lessons available to the wider fresh vegetable production industry.

The original plan struck the headwinds of Covid and severe on-farm staff shortages. Initially planned as face-to-face regional workshops, the project morphed into its current form: a range of online learning packages, sharing key lessons from the original project to a wider audience.

Support from Vegetables Research and Innovation and extension of funding from MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund allowed us to prepare this series of courses, with instructional videos, text and self-test quizzes.

Course Registration

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Courses

Course 1 Nutrient management for vegetable crops has three main sections: Nutrient management principles, Taking representative samples, and Nitrogen ( a special case).

Course 2 Run an on-farm fertiliser trial, follows our Ten Step Plan for a successful trial you might run to compare alternative fertiliser rates for your crops on your farm. It is based on the LandWISE/FAR On-Farm Trial Guide series of booklets and is essentially how we run our own on-farm trials.

Setting up a fertiliser trial site on one of the collaborating farms

Course 3 Fertiliser application equipment explains different types of application equipment and the factors you need to get right to apply the right amount evenly. It leads to the FertSpread tool to help measure machine performance and analyse the results.

Course 4 Irrigation Equipment Performance considers irrigation efficiency, soil water management and assessing irrigation systems using the IRRIG8Lite tool. It runs through data collection and processing, so you know if your systems is performing to standard.

Course 5 covers nutrient budgeting, determining how much nutrient your crop is likely to require, how much is available and how much extra is justified. It explains how, at the end of the season, you can check what actually happened, and assess if you had an excess or deficit. Review and learn to refine management!

Anticipated project outcomes include:

  • reduced impacts on land and water – resulting from better use of applied nutrients and water
  • improved water quality – directly through reduced nitrate leaching, but also through growers applying knowledge to other nutrients including phosphate
  • improved soil quality as excess nitrogen is reduced, and less carbon is lost unnecessarily
  • improved efficiency of water use – through equipment tested, shown to have good uniformity and with known application rates
  • reduced emissions such as NO3 and NO2 from nitrogen fertilisers, and less energy used as less made.

Thanks to all the farmers who made sites and equipment available, and our sub-contractors;
Extremekid Productions for filming and videos for Fertiliser Calibration and Soil Sampling
Drop Consulting for tech support and voicing videos for Irrigation Management.

Many thanks to our funders; Vegetable Research and Innovation and
the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund.

And thanks again all the sponsors of the original Future Proofing Vegetable Production project.