Wilbur Morrison – Buzzing about mead.
MAKING A BUZZ FROM HONEY A former Lincoln student is keeping an eye on plantain research while fostering an ancient brew. Anne Lee reports.
A
year on from finishing his Lincoln University honours degree Wilbur Morrison is keeping one eye on the buzz about plantain while running his own company producing the new alcoholic sensation, a twist on the ancient draft - mead. He and his business partner Edward Eaton launched their mead brand, Buzz Club last year in time for the summer and are now selling into more than 40 outlets including supermarkets, liquor stores and in restaurants. They’ve breathed new life into the ancient brew giving the honey-based liquor a sparkling fizz and a hint of fruity flavour. Working on product distribution plans, marketing concepts and packaging are a far cry from digging up columns of soil and pasture and measuring the effects of soil type and plantain on nitrogen leaching but 80
that’s where Wilbur was at when he and Edward kicked off the mead idea. His honours study revealed some surprising results and provoked his assertion that more research needs to be done on the full seasonal effect of plantain on limiting nitrogen leaching. His study looked at the effect of plantain on leaching losses during the cooler late autumn to early winter months from March 1 to May 30 by placing the lysimeters in the university’s Biotron where long-term weather conditions could be simulated. Instead of seeing an expected reduction in nitrogen leaching when plantain was present, he saw in increase in one of the lysimeters. Wilbur compared two common Canterbury soil types – a Templeton and a Balmoral. For each soil type there were three lysimeter treatments:
• Ryegrass/white clover only • Ryegrass/white clover with the application of nitrogen at a rate of 700kg nitrogen/ha to simulate a urine patch • Ryegrass/white clover with 22-31% plantain and the application of nitrogen at a rate of 700kg nitrogen/ha to simulate a urine patch. “The Balmoral is a lighter, leakier soil so I’d expected to see more leaching through it but there wasn’t a significant difference between the two Templeton treatments that received nitrogen – one with plantain and one without and the Balmoral 700 no plantain. “What really surprised me though was that the Balmoral plantain treatment leached significantly more nitrate than both the Templeton treatments. “The plantain didn’t reduce the nitrate leaching losses from either of the soil types. “Instead, the addition of plantain in the Balmoral soils significantly increased leaching losses between the Templeton and Balmoral treatments. “We thought we’d see a huge reduction in the Templeton 700(kg N/ha) with plantain
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021
