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Dr Roshean Woods says serving to convey the most recent instruments and expertise into dairy farmers’ arms is without doubt one of the greatest issues about her function.
The DairyNZ senior scientist, who hails from Timaru, is one in every of a crew of world-leading researchers working within the Low N Programs analysis programme.
This DairyNZ-led programme is investigating methods to mix totally different nitrogen (N) mitigation methods into farm techniques in an effort to assist farmers obtain important N loss discount targets whereas sustaining farm enterprise viability.
Decreasing NZ losses from farm techniques may also help cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions and contribute to improved freshwater high quality.
Woods’ work, which permits her to comply with her ardour for the atmosphere, entails partnering with 38 dairy farms in Waikato and Canterbury and collaborating with Fonterra, AgResearch, Lincoln College and EpiVets.
“It’s a collaborative effort,” she says. “We’re getting one of the best individuals concerned to attract on experience throughout many organisations.”
She works intently with DairyNZ farm techniques specialist Chris Glassey and says the partnership has helped develop her confidence.
“Chris has a wealth of information and expertise, gained all through his profession, and it’s labored rather well to have him as a sounding board,” says Woods.
The crew’s latest successes embrace having a paper revealed within the Journal of New Zealand Grasslands, together with co-authors from Fonterra, Lincoln College, and Waikato College, in November 2023.
This paper identifies grazing administration variations between farms with traditionally low or excessive bulk milk urea concentrations. These could possibly be linked to reductions within the herd’s dietary NZ surplus on farms with low bulk milk urea, resulting from cows consuming pasture with a decrease protein content material.
The researchers are utilizing this knowledge to develop a bulk milk-based indicator software for farmers to make use of to observe and handle their herd’s dietary N surplus. The software will even assist farmers establish when to use varied administration mitigations to cut back the danger of extra urinary N losses into the atmosphere.
When she’s not working, Woods enjoys tenting, tramping, searching – for meat and pest management – and gardening.
I may not reside on a farm however I take pleasure in producing my very own meals. That’s one thing I’ve realized about myself through the years,” she says. “We lately moved home and the primary weekend we had been there I used to be off to the nursery to purchase fruit bushes.”
Woods’s husband steadily tells her she will’t match every thing in to their 600sq m part, however she’s attempting.
“I’ve gone for a fruit salad strategy, I like the backyard, rising my very own greens, and I like having flowers and native vegetation,” she says.
“I’m actually passionate concerning the atmosphere. That’s one of many causes I do what I do.”
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