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Volume 49 I March 29, 2021 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I w w w.farmersweekly.co.nz
This graph shows the cost of shipping logs to China.
STRETCH YOURSELF:
Have a go: 1 Go to www.farmersweekly.co.nz 2 Find and watch the OnFarmStory of “As exciting as it’s ever been” and read the article “In it for the long haul”. 3 Where do the Absoloms live and farm? How long have they farmed there? 4 What do the Absoloms farm?
1 The three brothers working from the farm all have their distinct roles? What do each of them do? 2 Bulls are predominantly the lifeblood of the operation. They run Angus, Simmental and Profit Maker bulls. What is a “Profit Maker” bull? What characteristics make these bulls desirable? 3 What other stock do they carry and produce? 4 Daniel has a keen interest in the benefits that technology can bring to the farm. Including being part of a global, multi-breed database that allows comparisons of breeds throughout the world. Why could this be of benefit to the farm? 5 The Absoloms have a partnership with a Canadian company Growsafe Systems which uses technology focused on measuring feed intake in their cattle. What does this enable them to assess in their cattle? How is this of use/benefit to them? There is also a follow on benefit to the outcomes of this research regarding methane emissions, what is this?
Log shipping costs to China (US$/JASm3)
Have a go: 1 How do shipping costs compare to this time last year? 2 In what month/year were shipping costs at the highest level? 3 In what month/year were shipping costs at the lowest level?
STRETCH YOURSELF: 1 How do you think high shipping costs affect profit margins for products such as logs and red meat? For example, what is likely to happen to sheep and beef farmgate prices if processors are needing to pay high shipping costs? 2 What do you think is affecting shipping prices? Hint: What other forms of transportation are often used and how might they be interrupted in the past year.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Protecting the quality of our freshwater, rivers and lakes is a priority for New Zealand. Nitrate is a key nutrient for plant growth but is also a key water contaminant affecting quality of waterways. Nitrate contamination in waterways and groundwaters is increasingly linked to public health concerns (drinking water quality), toxicity to aquatic species, eutrophication of water bodies (algae growth), and biodiversity losses in freshwater ecosystems. Nitrate is a highly soluble and mobile nutrient, and if not managed properly it could leak from agricultural lands or wastewaters into receiving freshwaters. You may know that artificial drainage (e.g. surface drains or buried pipe drains) from farms are often carrying large amounts of nitrate to streams and rivers where it is a major pollutant. You might be less familiar with a group of microorganisms (denitrifying bacteria) which, given the right conditions (most importantly, a low oxygen environment), can convert the nitrate in drainage waters into harmless nitrogen gas (which makes up 78% of the atmosphere). So here is an interesting idea - what if we could intercept the water in artificial drainage systems and set these bugs to work on it? We can build a luxury hotel for the bugs which we call a ‘bioreactor’. A bioreactor consists of a large hole in the ground which is lined and filled with woodchips which provide many years’ supply of the carbon needed for the bugs to carry out the reaction.
3 What else might drive shipping costs? 4 What is the percentage difference between March 2020 shipping costs and March 2021? Figure 1. Construction of bioreactors in Upper Manawatu and Coastal Rangitikei catchments. Notice the pipe feeding drainage water into the woodchips at the top end of the bioreactor.
5 Do some research, how long does it take for a ship to get from NZ to China?
We put drainage water with a high nitrate concentration into the bioreactor, it passes slowly through the saturated woodchips, and out comes water with only very small amounts of nitrate. As the bugs work for free, bioreactors are a very effective and cheap way to improve water quality in streams and rivers.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE:
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• How does artificial drainage from farms often reduce water quality in streams and rivers? • What do denitrifying bacteria do to nitrate? • How do you know that the nitrogen gas emitted from the bioreactor is harmless? • It is important that denitrifying bacteria have access to lots of oxygen. True or False? • What is the role of the woodchips in a bioreactor? • Why are bioreactors relatively cheap to build?
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE TO HELP ACHIEVE IMPROVED WATER? QUALITY OUTCOMES, CHECK OUT THE BACHELOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE. Check out the Bachelor of Agricultural Science http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/ learning/programme-course/programme.cfm?major _ code=PENSC&prog _ id=92411
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